
Glass. 



— ;---;-— 



Book - O r. 



CONTROVERSY 



CAWS GRACCHUS AJVD 0P\M1US, 

IZJt- 

IV REFERENCE TO THE 
FOR COLONIZING THE 

jFrcc JJtopU of Golour of tlje WLnitiXi State*. 



First published in the Richmond Enquirer. 



(Scoi'flctotou, 23. <£. 

•UINTF.n AND PUBLISHED BY JAMES C. DUNV. 

1827. 



>£> 



THE following Note is in reply to one asking 
the consent of Caiiis Gracchus to this pub- 
lication. 

Amelia, December 1st, 1826. 

Sir: My neighbour, Mr. Penick, having communi- 
cated to me your request, that "Caius Gracchus Would 
consent that his numbers should be published in a 
pamphlet form with those of Opimius," I have to say 
in reply, that I can certainly have no objection to their 
re-publication in the manner desired: for although 
given to the public under the pressure of continued 
professional engagements, yet they are now public 
property; and you have my free consent to dispose of 
them in any way that your own candour and justice 
may lead you to adopt: with an assurance at the same 
time, that whilst 1 have freely canvassed the wisdom 
and policy of your scheme of colonization, I have at 
all times admitted the goodness of the motives in which 
it originated. 

Very respectfully, 

Your obedient Servant. 

THE AUTHOR 



<0(DiTva«fa&8? 



CAIUS GRACCHUS AND OPIMIUS. 



To the President and Members of the Auxiliary Colonization 
Society of Powhatan. 

Gentlemen: The recent organization of your Society in 
my vicinity, has attracted a degree of attention on my part, 
to the principles and objects of your Institution, which I had 
not given to the subject, while similar associations were 
springing up at a greater distance from me. For, although 
at all times sensible of the extreme delicacy of the subject 
upon which you propose to exert your beneficence, I had not 
believed that an Association avowedly founded on private 
charity alone, and seeking to effect its object through the 
medium of a Colony, to be planted on a distant and barba- 
rous coast, would ever for a long while engage the serious 
attention of the American people. I was induced, there- 
fore, to consider the parent Association at Washington, when 
it was first gotten up in 1816, (although sanctioned by some 
very imposing names,) as the effusion of that general desire 
to ameliorate the condition of man, which prevails in such a 
peculiar degree in our own country; and which, while it is 
admitted to be the offspring of some of the finest feelings of 
the human heart, and has often been the means of the attain- 
ment of great public blessings, has yet, not unfrequently, 
eventuated in the projection of schemes, abortive in prin- 
ciple and fraught with the most disastrous consequences both 
to the public and to individuals. Regarding your parent 
Association at Washington in this point of view, I could well 
do justice to the good feelings of most of its projectors, at 
the same moment that I indulged the belief that it would 
have only an ephemeral existence. But the persevering 



b Cains Gracchus, JV'o. 1. 

efforts of some of its members, coupled with a spirit of fana- 
ticism, which is equally calculated to amuse the fancies and 
to alarm the fears of society, have been so successfully ex- 
erted, as to procure the establishment of numerous affiliated 
Societies throughout the country, It hence, becomes a mat- 
ter of the deepest interest on the part of the slave-owners of 
the South, carefully to examine not only the principles and 
policy of your Association, but all the consequences which 
will probably grow out of it. to the peace and happiness of 
our slave population. And if. instead of the mild workings 
of a disinterested philanthropy, seeking only the promotion 
of human happiness, there should be found lurking in its train 
a viper, whose sting is to poison every source of domestic 
quietude, and to wrap our country in misery: none will hesi- 
tate to accord to it. the doom which must sooner or later 
await it. Under these impressions then. 1 beg leave to sub- 
mit to your Society, and to the people of Virginia at large, 
my own apprehensions and reflections upon this subject; and 
will, therefore, suggest for consideration the following to- 
pics: 

1st. Is the scheme of planting a distant Colony, by means 
of private charitv alone, practicable? 

2dly. Is it the object of the Association to rely upon chari- 
ty alone? or rather, do they not in reality look for the aid 
and patronage of the Federal Government? And if so, upon 
what principles of right, or policy, is such aid to be afford- 
ed? 

3dlv. Is it not also, an avowed object of the Association, 
to produce throughout the Union a total extinction of slavery> 
as well as to colonize the present free blacks of the coun- 
try? 

And 4thly. What are likely to be the horrible consequen- 
ces upon our slaves, by the public discussion of such topics, 
in sermons and other public harangues? 

Each of these topics in detail, shall receive from me a brief 
and respectful consideration. 

1st. Is the scheme of planting a distant Colony, by means 
of private charity alone, practicable? 

At the threshold of any remarks upon this subject, it may, 
I think, be very safely aflirmed, that the history of the 
world affords no example of the kind: And that there is not 
in human affairs generally, a more difficult undertaking than 
that of planting a distant Colony, even under the most fa- 
vourable auspices, and when aided am 1 , protected by the 
government of the parent country. If any thing was want- 



Caius Gracchus, No. 1. 7 

ing to prove the truth of this remark, let reference be had to 
the history of the early settlement of the Colonies in North 
America,' in relation to which we have the lights of authen- 
tic history.* In every instance that is recollected, of an at- 
tempt to plant a Colony, either in North or South America, 
the government of the parent country had both an interest 
and an agency in the enterprise. And while it is believed, 
that commercial cupidity has. in general, been the most 
fruitful source of planting distant Colonies: yet in every case, 
the sovereign jurisdiction over the new Colony has been re- 
tained and asserted by the government of the parent country; 
which, in turn, was under the obligation to give it protection. 
And whether this protection in all cases, may have been 
afforded in the best way. it is not now material to inquire; 
but it is believed in all successful attempts, to have been ex- 
tended in some form or other, and to a greater or lesser ex- 
tent in all. But in the case under consideration, charity! cold 
charity! it is alleged, is to supply, not only the means of in- 
ducing emigration on the part of the free blacks, many of 
whom are comfortably and prosperously settled among us, but 
after emigration, is also to supply the necessary succour, 
maintenance and government. And all this, too, for the mere 
abstract love of indulging the exercise of that heavenly quality. 

I submit it to the sober and reflecting part of society to 
determine, after the experience of the world in this business 
of planting colonies; led on and directed as they generally 
have been, by commercial enterprise and sagacity; and shel- 
tered under the protection of the government to which they 
belong, whether this scheme of planting a Colony, out of 
the worst of materials, upon a distant and barbarous coast, 
under a tropical climate, where incessant rains prevail for 
a large portion of the year, by the contributions of mere 
charity, be either feasible or rational. 

Let the history of the world admonish us upon this sub- 
ject. How often, under the most favourable auspices, have 
we seen infant colonies reduced to the greatest extremities 
of human suffering by accident, disease, famine and other 
calamities. And how often also, have we seen them, from 
similar causes, wholly destroyed, leaving scarcely a vestige 
of their infant settlements behind them. And are the re- 

* If any gentleman wishes to be informed of the many abortive attempts 
and the great difficulties which beset the first Colonists in North America, 
let him consult the histories of the New England Colonies by Belknap, 
Hutchinson and Minot; and in particular the early histories of our own state 
by Mr. Stith and Mr. Beverley. 



*• 



H Caius Gracchus, JVo. 1. 

fleeting part of society, at this day to be informed, that pri- 
vate charity is always unsteady and irregular in its contri- 
butions, and never to be relied on for the purpose of sus- 
taining any uniform and extensive system of expenditure? — 
Charity may be safely appealed to, for the purpose of found- 
ing a hospital, a free school, or of contributing to the imme- 
diate wants of the poor in other respects, by whom we may 
be surrounded; but when season after season is to bring with 
it a renewal of its calls, without being able to look forward 
to any determinate period when they are to end, he, indeed, 
must be little versed in the human character, who would not 
perceive that many of its calls would be made in vain. Check 
then, for a single season, the supplies necessary to sustain 
your infant Colony, and what is their condition ? Disease, 
starvation and death. Are there no accidents, too, to be 
apprehended from the infidelity of Agents, in the adminis- 
tration of your funds; from their want of skill, admitting 
them all to be honest: nothing from the insubordinate and 
wretched character of the population composing the Colony? 
Is there nothing, too, to be apprehended from the incursions 
of the barbarous tribes, by which your settlement is sur- 
rounded; from whom your infant Colony, if I mistake not, 
lias already received one or two pretty formidable attacks? 
If so, I pray you to recollect that all these misfortunes are 
to be repaired by private charity; and that too, perhaps, af- 
ter charity shall have become tired of giving. 

Let me not be told by the fanatical admirers of this chari- 
ty scheme, of the successful efforts of the "African Institu- 
tion" of London, in planting the present British Colony at 
Sierra Leone; of their public schools; of the number of Afri- 
can youths which they have in a course of instruction; of the 
good police of their Free Town, or their Regent's Town; or, 
if you please, of the present extent of the whole population 
of the Colony. These things, I know, have been assiduous- 
ly thrust into almost every Annual Report of the parent So- 
ciety, and every magazine whose columns could be pressed 
into the service. But, unfortunately, the history of this Co- 
lony furnishes, if not conclusive, at least pretty strong evi- 
dence of the truth of the proposition now under considera- 
tion: That private charity is inadequate in itself to the suc- 
cess of your enterprise. For without professing, to have a 
minute acquaintance with its history, at every stage of its 
advancement; this general fact is sufficient to be known, that 
from the foundation of the Colony, at Sierra Leone, in 1786, 
up to about 1806 or 1807, it remained under the direction 



Caius Gracchus, JVfo. 1. 9 

of the private Association by whom it was first established. 
That from the latter period, it was taken by the British 
Government into their own hands; and has so remained up 
to the present time. That as late as the year 1803. seven- 
teen years after its foundation, we find the following ac- 
count of its condition at that period, given by Mr. Jeffer- 
son, in a letter written by him at a subsequent time, to John 
Lynd, Esq. Speaking of an application which had been 
made through Mr. King, our Minister at London, to the 
African Society, to ascertain their willingness to receive 
Colonists from the United States; he says, "he (Mr. King) 
" opened a correspondence with Mr W — and Mr. Thorn- 
" ton, Secretary of the Company, on the subject; and in 1803, 
" I received through Mr. King the result, which was, that 
" the Colony was going on in but a languishing condition; 
u that the funds of the Company were likely to fail, as they re- 
" ceived no return of profit to keep them up; that they were 
" then in treaty with the Government to take the establishment 
" off their hands; but that in no event should they be willing 
" to receive more of these people from the United States, 
" who by their idleness and turbulence, had kept the settle- 
" ment in constant danger of dissolution." In a subsequent 
part of the same letter, he says, "I think I learned after- 
" wards, that the British Government had taken the Colo- 
" ny into their own hands, and believe it still exists." Here, 
then, is pretty strong evidence of the fact, that while pri- 
vate charity and individual exertion alone sustained the 
Colony, it drooped and languished, and was fast approach- 
ing dissolution, when its fate was only arrested by the 
policy of the British Government in taking it into their 
own hands; no doubt operated on by commercial cupidity, 
and her well known desire to extend her colonial domin- 
ions in every quarter of the globe. Many adventitious cir- 
cumstances at this moment, too, conspire to make this little 
Colony a sort of favourite bantling with the British Gov- 
ernment; among others there is known to exist a sort of 
passion, on the part of some members of the British Gov- 
ernment, upon the subject of slavery and the slave trade. 
Hence the royal munificence and bounty of the Government 
in favour of this little Colony. 

But apart from all general reasoning upon this subject, 
let us see whether we are not warranted in this belief, from 
the proceedings of the Society, and the opinions of some of 
its most distinguished members, that the better informed 
among themselves do not consider the contributions of 
B 



10 Caius Gracchus, JVfo. 1. 

charity alone as sufficient for their object; and that they arc 
in fact, looking for protection from the Federal Govern- 
ment. For that purpose, I would beg leave to introduce 
the following extract of a speech, delivered hy Gen. Robert 
Goodloe Harper, before the parent Society at Washington, 
in February, 1824, upon a proposition to petition Congress 
for aid in their behalf. '-I hold it," says the General, 
" perfectly clear, from what has come to my knowledge of 
" the progress of this, and all similar establishments, that 
" no means within the possession of this, or any other pri- 
"vate Association, are adequate to the attainment of those ob- 
jects which such an Association ought to hold in view." 
This, then, is the language of one of the Vice-Presidents of 
the parent Association, eight years after the Society was 
first founded. But let us hear further upon this subject 
from the President of the Society himself; and for that pur- 
pose I would call your attention to the following extracts 
from Judge Bushrod Washington's address to the Society, 
delivered in January, 1820, and prefixed to the third Annual 
Report of its proceedings. "The sentiments and wishes," 
says the President, "of those who were the objects of our 
" solicitude, were to be ascertained, the public mind was 
"to be enlightened, and the co-operation of our fellow- 
" citizens secured by satisfying them, that the plan of the 
" Society was both wise and practicable; and the power, aid, 

11 and patronage of the National Government was to be sought 
"for and obtained-" In another part of the same address, 
he makes the following observations. "All that now re» 
" mains to be accomplished, is to obtain the countenance and 
" aid of the National Government in such manner, and to 
" such extent, as Congress in its wisdom may think expe- 
" client." And finally, in the close of the same address, he 
says, "I submit it therefore to the consideration of the So- 
" ciety, whether it may not be proper to appoint a Com- 
" mittee, to bring this subject to the view of the present 
" Congress, and to advocate the claims, which the unibrtu- 
" nate class of men in whose cause we are engaged, have 
" upon the justice, the humanity, and the magnanimity of 
" the National Government." Without adducing other 
proofs, it appears to be pretty manifest, from the foregoing 
extracts, that the better informed part of the parent Associa- 
tion do in fact admit, that charity in itself is unequal to the 
accomplishment of your purpose, and that it will be indis- 
pensably necessary to your success to invoke the aid and 
patronage of the "National Government," as they have been 
pleased to term it. 



Cains Gracchus, JVo. l. n 

This view of the subject directly leads me to the examina- 
tion of the second topic which I have suggested for your 
consideration. And here permit me to inquire m what 
manner, and under what provision of the Federal Constitu- 
tion it is that the aid and patronage of the Federal Govern- 
ment is to be bestowed ? Is it, like the British Government, 
to take your settlement at Liberia into their own hands and 
to establish upon the coast of Africa a permanent Colony? 
Or is it by a vote direct to lavish upon you the public trea- 
sure. Either of which I have no hesitation in affirming, 
would be equally unconstitutional and impolitic. But waiv- 
ing for the present all remarks upon the policy of holding 
distant Colonies, as being at war with the interests of a Re- 
public; known to be as they always have been the most fruit- 
ful sources of foreign wars; I would respectfully ask, where 
is the power under the Federal Constitution for the Govern- 
ment of the United States to hold any people or any coun- 
try as a. permanent Colony of the General Government ?— 
Congress has power to admit new states into the Union.—- 
It has also the power of acquiring territory with a view to 
that object, as was solemnly determined by the Government 
in the case of Louisiana. But that acquisition must be made 
with a bona fide intention of admitting the territory and 
people thus acquired into the great family of the Republic, 
upon the attainment of a proper degree of maturity, and 
not to be held as a permanent Colony. Here, then, let mc 
pause for a moment and emphatically ask, does there live a 
a man so blinded by fanaticism and folly as to wish to see 
the Federal Union* extended beyond the Atlantic to the 
Western shores of Africa, to embrace a population already 
deemed so vile by the votaries of this scheme as to be unfit 
to live among us*? I presume not. Let us then see under 
what power it is that you would ask Congress for a direct 
vote of the public money. Is it upon the belief that they have 
the right of doing general deeds of charity ? If so, I am happy 
to be yet a stranger to such a provision of the Constitution. 
Or is*it, that like some other acts of that body, you would 
have them shelter it under some of the implied powers ? If 
so, then indeed I may have been labouring under wrong im- 
pressions upon this subject. Perhaps in this way you may 
find a cover for it, under that all-comprehensive power 
which authorizes Congress to i 'provide for the common de- 
fence and general welfare of the United States," if you can 
be successful in convincing that body of the policy of your 
scheme. But I will not allow myself to believe that the 



12 Caius Gracchus, A"o. 2. 

Government of my country will thus act; notwithstanding all 
the sickly sensibilities and mistaken impressions which are 
known to exist upon the subject of slavery on the part of a 
large class of politicians in this country. I will not for a 
moment think that even the wildest of these latitudinarians 
could be induced to break the holy barriers of the Constitu- 
tion to legislate on such a subject. A subject at once deli- 
mit, delicate and awful in all the consequences which will 
flow from an unrighteous interference with it. 

Believing the subject of this communication to be one of 
the deepest interest to my fellow-citizens, I shall pursue it 
in a subsequent number with an eye to the two remaining 
topics which have not yet been considered. 

CAIUS GRACCHUS. 



To the President and Members of the Auxiliary Colonization 
Society of Powhatan, 

Gentlemen: In pursuance of the intimation which I gave 
you in my former communication, I beg leave now to pursue 
the examination of your scheme in relation to the two remain- 
ing topics which I there stated for consideration. And 
while I take pleasure in acknowledging my own opinion of 
the amiable motives and feelings which dictated the plan of 
your parent Association, I shall, nevertheless, take the liber- 
ty of discussing with freedom, the wisdom and policy of the 
measure, and of denouncing in suitable terms all the mischiefs 
and evils which I think must inevitably grow out of a perse- 
verance in your purpose. 

Is it then* true, that it is one of the objects of your Society to 
produce a general emancipation of slavery throughout the 
United States, as well as to colonize the present free blacks 
of the country? If so. permit me to ask, have you properly 
considered the importance, the difficulty and delicacy of your 
enterprise? Have you duly estimated the means by which 
this great revolution in the population of the South is to be 
effected? In a word, have you well considered all the politi- 
cal and social consequences which are to grow out of it? If 
you have,, your minds have been led to a very different result 
from any opinions of my own; or, what I believe, must be the 
opinions of a majority of the reflecting people of this country, 
after your scheme shall have been properly considered. But 



Caius Gracchus, JVfc. 2. IS 

lest I should be charged with imputing to your Society an ob- 
ject whirl) the style of your Association does not imply, nor 
the provisions of your constitution declare, and which I be- 
lieve but few suspect you of entertaining, I consider it my 
duty in the first place, to fix this purpose upon you: and with 
that view. I shall here introduce a portion of evidence of the 
most unequivocal character; and which, I presume, will at 
least be regarded by you as good authority, as it is derived 
from your own files. Let us then consult, in the first place, 
the 3d Annual Report of the parent Association at Washing- 
ton, page £9. in which will be found the following sentence: 
"For although it is believed, and is indeed too obvious 
quire proof, that the colonization of the free people of colour 
alone, would not only tend to civilize Africa, to abolish the 
slave trade, and greatly to advance their own happiness, 
but to promote that also of the other classes of society, the 
proprietors and their slaves: yet the hope of the gradual and 
utter abolition of slavery, in a manner consistent with the 
rights, interests and happiness of society, ought never to be 
abandoned.' 9 Again, in page 98 of the same Report, Ap- 
pendix G.. will be found the following extract from the ad- 
dress of the President to the Society upon the same subject: 
"The effect of this Institution, if its prosperity shall equal 
our wishes, will be alike propitious to every interest of our 
domestic society; and should it lead, as we mayfairlu hope it 
will, to the slow but gradual abolition of slavery, it will wipe 
from our political institutions the only blot which stains them; 
and in the palliation of which we shall not be at liberty to 
plead the excuse of moral necessity, until we shall have hon- 
estly exerted all the means which we possess for its extinc- 
tion.'' Here then is a pretty distinct expression of your ob- 
ject in this respect from the highest sources. But Twill not 
content myself with this only, but show from the declarations 
of some of your most distinguished votaries, that such is well 
understood among them to be one of the prominent objects of 
your Association. For this purpose I must again refer to 
the same page of the same Report. Appendix G., fur the fol- 
lowing extract of a letter written by General Robert Good- 
loe Harper, lately one of its Vice-Presidents to the Secre- 
tary of the Society at "Washington. "Great, however, as 
the benefits are. which we may promise ourselves from the 
colonization of the free people of colour, by its tendency to 
prevent the discontent and corruption of our slaves, and to 
secure to them a better treatment by rendering them more 
worthy of it, there is another advantage infinitely greater in 



14 Cains Gracchus, JVo. 2. 

every point of view, to which it may lead the way. It tends, 
and may powerfully tend, to rid us gradually and entirely in 
the United States of slaves and slavery; a great moral and 
political evil of increasing virulence and extent, from which 
much mischief is now felt, and very great calamity in future 
is justly apprehended. It is in this point of view, I confess, 
that your scheme of colonization must strongly recommend 
itself, in my opinion, to attention and support." But this is 
not all. Let us see with what eagerness this object of your 
Society is caught at by our brethren to the North, whose mis- 
guided zeal, and fanaticism upon a late memorable occasion 
in Congress,* excited a storm whose dreadful forebodings 
distinctly announced this as one of the most dangerous sub- 
jects upon which the government, or the people of this coun- 
try could be called on to act. And for that purpose I would 
beg leave to call your attention to the following extracts, 
from the Report of the Committee appointed at Boston, 
Sept. 7th, 1822, to consult about the expediency of affording 
aid to the Colonization Society; and which will be found ap- 
pended to the 6th Annual Report of your parent Association 
at Washington, pages 49 and 50. — "Were the objects of this 
Society," say the Committee, * 'extended no farther than 
the colonization of such people of colour in our own country 
as arc already free, or who will become free in the ordinary 
course of events, 'they would not in the view of the Commit- 
tee, be such as to excite that deep interest among us, which is 
necessary to secure a very active co-operation;" and after 
enumerating its probable effects in the civilization of Africa, 
and an extension of the principles of Christianity, it further 
says: "But if while these purposes are accomplished, the 
colonization of the free people of colour will aid effectually 
in the suppression of the slave trade, so as to lead to the en- 
tire abolition of that detestable traffic, and at the same time 
afford such encouragement to the emancipation of slaves, as to 
prepare the way for the gradual extermination of slavery, it 
would become an object worthy of the attention and assistance of 
the whole Christian world. Jlnd that such are the designs and 
expectations of those who are most active in managing the 
concerns of the American Colonization Society, the Commit- 
tee have the fullest confidence." Again, in a subsequent 
part of the same Report, the Committee expressly declare, 
that "It is only from the belief which the Committee very 
ordially entertain, that the active members of the American 

• The Missouri Question- 



Caius Gracchus, No. 2. 

Colonization Society, are perfectly disposed to frame their 
measures with reference to the entire suppression of the 
slave trade, and to a gradual and prudent, but complete 
emancipation of those now held in slavery, that we can regard 
the Society as having any claim upon the sympathy or assis- 
tance of the people of New England." Here then, I presume, 
the measure of proof must be considered by all as complete. 
And is it, in reality one of the objects of your Society to 
effect the emancipation of the slaves of the South ? Pause, I 
beseech you, and reflect for a moment on the magnitude and 
design of this subject. Divest yourselves, if you can, of 
every feeling of fanaticism, and regard this as a sheer poli- 
tical question. No matter how slow, how gradual, or how 
insidious may be your movements to the attainment of such 
an object, be* assured you can never be successful. In your 
efforts you may be able to cherish in the country a feeling 
intimately connected with that sectional jealousy which has 
already began to rear its Gorgon front in the federal conn- 
cils. You may be able to excite in the bosoms of the south- 
ern slaves, a spirit of discontent and insubordination, which, 
while it will endanger the happiness of the fairest portion of 
the Union, will only serve to draw closer the bonds of sla- 
very; and to realize a great and signal example of the folly 
of seeking after unattainable perfection. 

But let us suppress for a moment the feelings, which na- 
turally arise upon the contemplation of such an enterprise, 
and examine attentively the means by which it is proposed 
to effect it. And as far as I have been informed, only two 
modes have been suggested; the one is by a great moral in- 
fluence which is to be exerted over the opinions and feelings 
of the South, and the other by means of the same moral princi- 
ple, with the "aid and countenance of the National Gov- 
ernment." We will then briefly consider the prospect of 
success likely to attend both operations. First, as to the mor- 
al principle alone. And to render this successful, you must 
convince the American people that you will be able to es- 
tablish your proposed Colony by means of charity only. — 
2d. If charity itself should not be adequate to such an object, 
then that the Federal Government has the constitutional 
right either to do deeds of charity for you, or to establish 
and keep up a permanent Colony of free negroes on the coasl 
of Africa: or, in the 3d place, that it is good policy on the 
part of our Government, to take this Colony in the Federal 
Union, and make it an integral part thereof. 4th. To in- 
duce the people «of the United States voluntarily and for 



16* Caius Gracchus, No. 2* 

charity sake, to surrender one million and a half of slaves. 
5th. To overcome the individual habits, pride and prejudi- 
ces of twelve states. And finally, after all this is effected, to 
be able to prevail on, by proper inducements, this million 
and a half of slaves, made free men, voluntarily to quit the 
country; and also, to perpetuate to them and their posterity 
a republican form of government for the Colony after it falls 
into their hands: as not to secure to them this blessing, 
would be but an exchange of masters, and that of a white 
master for a black one. Without enumerating other diffi- 
culties, I submit it to the calm and reflecting part of my 
countrymen, to determine upon the probability of so success- 
fully exerting any moral principle, as to overcome all the 
great difficulties which I have stated. Already, I think, 
has it been shown, in my former communication, that cha- 
rity alone cannot successfully plant your Colony; and also, 
that the aid which you invoke from the "National Govern- 
ment" in planting the Colony, cannot in any form be consti- 
tutionally afforded you. But suppose for a moment, that I 
have been wrong in all my previous opinions and reasoning 
upon the constitutional powers of the Federal Government: 
also, as to the extent to which charity can be successful, and 
that your Colony at Liberia is now at maturity, and able to 
sustain itself without foreign aid. Yet, in relation to the 
emancipating part of your scheme, the great difficulty still 
exists. How are you to invert the order of human nature, 
and to render that ruling passion, self-interest, and the love 
of wealth so wholly inoperative as to secure the voluntary 
surrender of three hundred millions of dollars, which is the 
estimated value of 1,500,000 slaves at S200 each ? If I mis- 
take not, there is not a principle of human conduct that can 
with so much safety be counted on in the enaction of laws, 
or the adoption of any scheme of policy, as self-interest and 
the love of property. Do not these attributes of the human 
character, of themselves, seem to present an insuperable dif- 
ficulty to the attainment of your wishes? But even this ob- 
stacle, as formidable as it certainly is, offers not an hun- 
dredth part of the difficulties you will have to encounter in 
your attempt to revolutionize the whole character and habits 
of the people of the South: — habits which have so long and 
so generally obtained as to have become almost incorporated 
with our very existence. Even our bodies, as well as our 
minds, have been moulded under the influence of this princi- 
ple of labour among us; and that which was first a habit has 
become constitutional. Added to all these considerations. 



Caius Gracchus, No. 2. IT 

there is a peculiarity in the love which most masters enter- 
tain for their slaves, that does not apply to any other species 
of property. Few of us who own slaves at all, that have not 
among them some which were the gift of our fathers, who 
have been raised with us from infancy to manhood, and 
shared with hs in all the pastimes and amusements of youth; 
receiving from us good fellowship at that age. and a share of 
every little delicacy that parental kindness could lavish upon 
us- Some, too, there are among them who may have watch- 
ed over our childhood as nurses, and taught us to indulge a 
feeling of kindness towards them, that no time or circum- 
stances can ever eradicate. To all these considerations, too, 
may he superadded the peculiar cast of character in the 
South, which the ownership of slaves has certainly had a 
great tendency to produce. Proud, high-spirited and inde- 
pendent the love of freedom, and a jealousy of any invasion 
of their rights, either individually or politically, have ever, I 
think, been distinguishing attributes of the Virginia and 
Southern character. Over such a population, with such 
habits, feelings and interests, what moral principle, short of 
a miracle itself, could work the desired change? None, I am 
sure, which obtains in the management of human affairs. Let 
us, then, see in what manner the ''countenance and aid of the 
National Government," in co-operation with this principle, 
is to be exerted. We have already seen that under the Con- 
stitution, the Federal Government has no right to hold a 
permanent Colony, or to do general deeds of charity. But 
supposing your Colony to be established without it, has it 
then a right to take any steps either directly or indirectly to 
aid you in the emancipation of the Southern slaves? Need 
I refer you to the 2d section of the 1st article of the Federal 
Constitution, by which it is declared, that "Representatives 
and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several 
States which may be included in this Union, according to 
their respective numbers, which shall be determined by add- 
ing to the whole number of free persons, including those 
bound to service for a term of years and excluding Indians, 
three-fifths of all other persons" ? Without referring to other 
portions of the same instrument, in which the existence of 
slavery is solemnly recognised, I would here ask, how is 
this business of emancipation to be effected without breaking 
up the verv foundations upon which the existence of this 
"National Government" depends? Is it, then, only by the 
destruction of the principle of the Constitution, aided by the 
workings of a .miracle, that vour object in this respect can 
C 



18 Cains Gracchus, A*o. 2. 

be effected? Is it not worthy of remark, too, (as we have 
been recently told by Mr. Mercer, in one of h is late attacks 
upon the good old Constitution and respectability of his na- 
tive state,) that this very principle of the Constitution which 
I have quoted, was introduced into that instrument by the 
management of Brother Jonathan, whose sensibilities of late, 
have been so deeply affected by the existence of slavery 
among us. 

Without pursuing this constitutional inquiry further, per- 
mit me to assure you, gentlemen, that there are many very 
well-informed politicans in this country, and good philanthro- 
pists too, who have not been able to see all the horrors in 
Southern slavery which some of the busy votaries of your- 
scheme have imagined. They believe, and upon well 
grounded information, that the great mass of the slaves in 
the United States, particularly in Virginia, are better fed. 
better clothed, and enjoy more real happiness, than the la- 
bouring class in any of the governments of Europe. That 
as the native African character has been improved in the 
persons of their descendants who have been reared among 
us, it has been the policy of the Virginians, as it will be of 
the citizens of all other States similarly situated, to adopt 
milder means for their government. Hence, the great and 
increasing amelioration of the laws of Virginia upon this 
subject. They believe, as philanthropists too, that the sum 
of human happiness consists in small matters; and that so 
far as the individual happiness of the negroes is concerned, 
there is much reason to believe, that were they successfully 
planted in your African Colony, their condition would not 
be bettered. In the indulgence of this opinion, they cannot 
overlook the fact, that the greatest risk of life must in all 
cases be incurred in a removal from the healthy climate of 
the United States, of any native, to the coast of Africa. It 
is known, too, that when your Colony shall have swelled a 
little more in population, (if it ever should,) it will not be 
competent for your charitable Board at Washington, consist- 
ing of twelve Managers and a Resident Agent, at the dis- 
tance of 3 000 miles, with the Atlantic rolling between you, 
to manage such a population by any means within your con- 
trol; and that the consequence will be, the establishment of 
an independent government for themselves. And what 
would be, in such an event, the form of their civil polity, let 
the history of the world inform you. If the French people, 
claiming to be the most refined nation in Europe, at the com- 
mencement of their Revolution, had too recently emerged 



Cains Gracchus, JVo. 2. 19 

from a condition of political slavery, to be able to sustain a 
republican form of government in their country, can it be 
doubted tbat any thing short of a high-handed military des- 
potism, would be adequate to curb the insubordinate and dis- 
solute population of a Colony made up of emancipated 
sl'ivcs ^ 

Many wise and virtuous men there are, too, who doubt the 
success of your enterprise, in civilizing the nations of Africa. 
If the history of the world be appealed to upon this subject, 
I presume it would admonish you of the fact, that wherever 
the settlements of civilized man have obtained, the native in- 
habitants of the woods have always receded,— Without ad- 
ducing other examples, witness the result of the European 
settlements in America, and the British settlements in the 
East Indies. Witness the daily operation of things upon our 
own Western frontier, where every exertion of a liberal and 
humane policy has been unable to arrest this natural course 
of events. If the same immutable laws of nature should still 
obtain, what will the poor degraded and savage inhabitants 
of Africa have gained by your exertions? Nothing but ex- 
termination. 

But, it is furthermore said by your votaries, that the ex- 
istence of African slavery among us is not compatible with 
the free character of our republican institutions; but has also 
a tendency to demoralize their owners. In regard to the 
first part of the objection, it may very truly be said to be 
an objection consisting more in terms and in sound, than m 
any evil influence which it exerts in the government. And 
for the truth of the remark, allow me to appeal to facts with 
which most of us are familiar. In what portion of the 13 nion 
will you find a more independent, high-spirited people; jea- 
lous of their civil and religious rights, ever prompt and ready 
to expose the abuses of government, than the people of the 
South. And without meaning to press inviuious comparisons 
between different parts of the Union, farther than the task 
has been imposed upon me, allow me to ask, in what section 
of the United States is it, that we most frequently hear the 
application and use of those servile terms of address: «* The 

Honorable Mr. , member of Congress, &c. &c." "His 

Excellency the Governor, &c. &c. &c." and all the other 
terms of courtly distinction? Not in Virginia, or the Southern 
States, to the same ridiculous extent to which they obtain m 
the North, I am sure. It is in the non-slave-holding states 
where these and other marks of distinction are most trequently 
to be met with. Look to your Federal Government, now 



20 Cams Gracchus, J\*o. 2. 

anil at all times heretofore, for men of liberal sentiments 
upon the subject of civil liberty, and I presume the South 
will have no occasion to decline a comparison with the North. 
Is there no instruction, too, upon this subject, to be derived 
from the history of two of the freest States in ancient times ? 
Look to the Republics of Rome and Lacsedemon; in both of 
Which, during the proudest days of their freedom, private 
slavery was tolerated. And permit me, in conclusion upon 
this branch of the subject, to assure you, that in all civilized 
countries which have ever yet existed, there have been, and 
always must his, a labouring class. There must be "hewers 
of wood, and drawers of water." And if there be not a par- 
ticular description of persons, as in the Southern States, by 
whom those duties are to be performed, they must be drawn 
from the great bulk of the population of the country; the re- 
suit of which is well known both in Europe and in the non- 
slave-holding States of America. 

Those who perform these menial duties, in their intercourse 
with their employers, are, almost as servile as the Southern 
slave; and while' they are admitted, by the forms of their 
Government, to an equality of civil rights, form a separate 
and distinct class from their wealthy employers. This state 
of things has a direct tendency to produce a real aristocracy 
in society, founded upon the possession of wealth, the most 
odious of all distinctions. Hence, it may safely be affirmed, 
that whatever may be the fact in regard to the whole popu- 
lation of a state, including both black and white; yet, as it 
respects the white population, slavery lias a natural tendency 
to produce a greater degree of equality, than exists in States 
where slavery is unknown. 

I would here gladly close this communication, and leave 
the consideration of the evils which must inevitably flow from 
the public discussion of such topics to your own reflections; 
but i am admonished by past experience, that correct reflec- 
tion upon this subject, is slow in coming; and, perhaps, may 
only come after the horrors which I deprecate shall actually 
have overtaken the country. Pardon ine, then, gentlemen, 
when I tell you, that you have embarked in a crusade, more 
hopeless than that which engaged the forces of all Christen- 
dom, without success, for nearly two centuries. The God of 
Nature has fixed his seal upon destiny; and all the feeble ef- 
forts of man, in opposition to its laws, will only serve to 
swell the list of human miseries. Prompted by the goatlings 
of a blind fanaticism, which seems already to have placed it- 
self in close alliance with you, tins, which is a sheer politi- 



Cuius Gracchus, J\'o. 3. 21 

cal question, may be tortured into a theme for pulpit decla- 
mation. Once let it obtain a place there, and the Christian 
religion, which lias so many claims upon the favourable con- 
sideration of the world, and which has heretofore sustained 
itself in our happy land, regardless of political agitations, 
will be made the medium of one of the severest scourges of 
the American people. It is well known to the reflecting 
part of mankind, that more or less of fanaticism is certain 
to attach itself to every political subject, which is placed in 
alliance with the Church. Hence the w isdom of that princi- 
ple of American politics, which forbids the union of Church 
and State. 

But I forbear to press this view of the subject farther. I 
feel too deeply penetrated with the conviction, that however 
misguided your efforts, and chimerical your views, the mo- 
tives which impel to exertion, are good. But good motives 
will not be a sufficient atonement for your follies, when you 
may have lighted the faggot which is to communicate a 
flame, that will destroy the peace and happiness of half the 
United States; and which will carry in its train every species 
of horror, and visit alike its miseries upon the master and the 
slave. CARS GRACCHUS. 



To Bushrod TFashington, Esq. President of the Jmericav- 
Colonixatioii Society. 

Sir: The high character which you sustain in the coun- 
try, as well as your office as President of the American 
Colonization Society, would have indicated you in the first 
place as the proper person to be addressed, in any remarks 
upon the principles and objects of your Association, had I not- 
been influenced by a wish to arrest the progress of a grow- 
ing mischief, which had already approached the limits of my 
own threshold. It was for that reason only, that my two 
former communications were addressed to the President and 
Members of the Auxiliary Society of Powhatan. I now beg 
leave, however, to redeem my self from this apparent neglect, 
and to offer to you some small token of my recollection of 
the part which you are acting in this mischievous affair; in 
Which I shall terminate, for the present, any further discus- 
sion of this subject, after having very briefly pointed out 
the progress and the alarming tendency of the doctrines which 
your Society is now engaged in propagating through the 
land. 



22 Cuius Gracc/ms, No. 6. 

I do not expect to be able to change your opinions upon 
this subject, or to make a proselyte of you, by any efforts of 
mine. Many considerations exist to prevent the indulgence 
of such a hope. For, while all unite in according to you an 
unsullied private character, you are known to hold opinions 
in regard to the powers of the Federal Constitution and upon 
the subject of slavery, which have long placed you in con- 
cert with those most unfriendly to the interests of the slave- 
holding States. The public avowal of these opinions, and 
the compliments which have been so handsomely paid you, 
by placing you at the head of the parent Association, must 
convince me how vain would be the attempt to overthrow an 
old man's opinions, thus supported by his pride and his pre- 
judices. It is possible too, sir, in the discharge of this duty, 
I may indulge in a freedom of remark, and a rigour of exam- 
ination, not altogether reconcileable with the quiet of your 
feelings, and of those with whom you are acting. But, I 
beg you to be assured, that I shall not wantonly and unneces- 
sarily seek to inflict pain or uneasiness upon you. But when 
principles and objects arc avowed, which threaten the de- 
struction of the peace and happiness of half the Union; and 
for the attainment of which, the Federal Constitution itself is 
to be violated, it becomes the duty of every good citizen, not 
only to denounce the mischief, but to point the finger of cen- 
sure and disapprobation at the authors themselves. And 
should you suffer from so unpleasant a distinction, your re- 
flection must be, that its correction is at all times in your 
own hands. 

Bear with me then, sir, while I trace the progress of this 
mischievous sentiment, which has recently manifested itself 
in such excess of sensibility at the existence of Southern 
slavery: and, while I mark its advances from the smallest 
beginnings, down to the present period, when sheltering it- 
self under the sacred forms of religion and the auspices of 
your Society, it is now actively engaged in scattering the 
seeds of misery and disunion in the country, with all the con- 
cert and effect which organized associations can give it. 

In the contemplation of this subject, it will be a source of 
no little instruction to us, to take a brief view of the state of 
public sentiment, upon the subject of slavery, as it existed 
at the time of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and 
from thence, up to the period of the establishment of your So- 
ciety; and to contrast the harmony and general tranquillity 
which obtained in all parts of the Union, upon this subject, 
with the alarming doctrines, and excited sensibility, which 



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X 



Cains Gracchus, JVb. 3. 25 

point out the pernicious effects of the free negro population 
on our slaves, lie closes by these further remarks: — * 4 Ke 
would conclude by saying, that he had thought it necessary 
to make these remarks, being a slave-holder himself; to show 
that so far from being connected with the abolition of slavery, 
the measure proposed would prove one of the greatest secu- 
rities to enable the master to keep in possession his own pro- 
perty* " But this is not all. 

Mr. Francis Key (of the District, and one of the present 
Managers of the Society,) >' Suggested that with a view to ex» 
emvt the object of the meeting from the possibility of misappre- 
hension, there should be inserted in the resolves, an express 
disclamation of any intention of the proposed Association. 10 
touch the question of the abolition of slavery.'* The Chairman, 
Mr. Clay, "remarked, that spoil a clause would better enter 
into the articles of the Association when formed." To which 
Mr. Key assented. 

After such an unequivocal and solemn disclaim, by the 
founders of your Institution, of any intention to interfere with 
the subject of slavery, what must be the astonishment of all 
reflecting men, when they perceive your Society in its cor- 
porate character, and your numerous votaries in their wide- 
spread operations through the country, within the short 
space of a few years, openly avowing and propagating doc- 
trines leading directly to the general abolition of slavery ? 
Shall I be again called on to furnish the proof that this is 
one of your objects ? Already has that most unpleasant duty 
been performed, in my last communication to the Auxiliary 
Society of Powhatan. But if further proof is wanted, let me 
refer you to a whole chapter under the head of Appendix G. 
attached to the 3d Annual Report of your Society: gravely 
penned and made up of different extracts, from the speeches 
and communications of your members, to prove that this was 
one of your objects. Let me refer you too, to the notorious 
and distressing fact, that your subordinate Agents are at this 
moment penetrating society in all directions, inculcating 
these pernicious doctrines, under the solemn and sacred sanc- 
tions of religious obligation. It is in vain for us to be told 
that your Society does not seek to impose any direct obliga- 
tion on the slave-owner to emancipate his slaves; but that 
your aim is to effect this object gradually, and by the exer- 
tion of a great moral principle to be created among us. 
This, when we consider the peculiar character and temper 
of this portion of our population, is no palliation of the mis- 
chief. Not even fanaticism itself, would be rash enough to 
D 



26 Caius Gracchus, No. 3. 

attempt by direct means, the general abolition of slavery. 
Tbe peculiar constitution of society in the South, and the 
safeguards which the Constitution and laws have thrown 
around this portion of our property, must at least for the 
present render any movement of this sort, both physically 
and legally impracticable It would seem, then, that your 
Society is entitled to but little credit for seeking to effect 
your object in the only mode which was left for your choice. 
But, sir, it is from your efforts in this very mode of operation 
in attempting to create a great moral principle in society, fa- 
vourable, to emancipation, that all the horrible consequences 
which I deprecate, are likely to result. And, when we con- 
template its inevitable consequences upon our slave popula- 
tion, it is, if any thing, more objectionable than a direct 
movement to your object; for, while the one would lead inevi- 
tably to open* war, the other leads as certainly to the most 
horrible species of assassination. Your public and private 
discussions of this interesting question, however honestly 
they may be intended for the moral edification and improve- 
ment of the whites, will not fail to engage a much greater 
degree of attention from the slaves, than from all other por- 
tions of society, for the most obvious of all reasons, because 
to them it is a question of liberty or slavery. Goaded up 
to a state of phrenzy by your fanatical inspirations, their 
hopes and feelings would but illy brook the necessary delay 
for the successful establishment of your favorite moral prin- 
ciple in the minds of their masters. Degraded and debased 
from the very knowledge of their condition as slaves, disso- 
lute and abandoned in their moral character, with passions 
and feelings of the most lawless and brutal kind; rendered 
more than combustible by inflated pictures of liberty and the 
recollections of past servitude, a single, spark would be suf- 
ficient to throw the whole country into a flame, whose ravages 
would extend themselves into every walk of society. Our 
fields, our kitchens, and even the sacred retreat of our 
chambers would contribute the materials to feed this unholy 
conflagration. 

But let me turn from this appalling scene of misery, which 
is destined to grow out of your efforts to revolutionize pub- 
lic sentiment upon this subject, and see if it is not also true, 
that there is much reason to believe, that your Society from 
its very nature and tendency, (especially since the interpola- 
tion of the abolition principle into its proceedings,) has al- 
ready been, and is calculated to become, in future, the reposi- 
tory of all the fanatical spirits in the country upon this sub- 



Caius Gracchus, JVo. 3. %1 

iect; and whether the late political movements to which I 
have had allusion, being subsequent to the establishment of 
your Society, have not a close moral, if not real connection 
Jrith you. It cannot be expected that these propositions 
should be sustained by the same definite and precise proof, 
as that which lias been adduced to show the rapid encroach- 
ments of your Society, since its first organization: because, 
from the very nature of things, they are not susceptible o t 
But I believe, enough has already been developed in >oui 
operations, to produce the most satisfactory impressions ot 
th^rSectneL First, then, as to its tendency to become 
the rallying point of all the restless and disaffected I upon the 
anhiert of slavery. No other proof upon this branch ot the 
nquirv can be necessary, but the fact just noticed, that when 
your Society was first formed, its sole object was said to be 
ItelolonivaL of the free people of colyu in^hich jlM**- 
your founders to have been sincere. Yet, n ^ejp^eora 
few years, it is seen avowing principles and objects, y, Inch 
look to the general abolition of slavery throughout the 13 nitcd 
State* This extraordinary change can only be accounted 
for in two modes, either that your founders were insincere m 
their declarations, and were actually practising a fraud «p- 
on the community, (which I will not allow myself to believe,) 
E that my conclusion is correct: and that the principle of 
abolition, since interpolated is a vice ^^.^^S 
of all such Associations. Experience then, the o„h ine 
standard of correct reasoning, seems to settle this .que stion 
between us, and renders all abstract argument on it un- 
necessary- One remark, however, cannot be forborne. It 
must be 7 apparent to every man, that the same feeling and 
Sensibility, which would lead any set of men to devise plans 
^t amelioration of the condition rff*****^ 
colour, (if to colonize, is in fact to ameliorate ) won Id na tui al- 
ly, and almost by necessary consequence, show itself, be- 
half of a still more degraded portion of owMtowj^to 
who were in bondage. The one picture could notfee ^con- 
templated without also seeing the other. They belong tatti 
same species, have a common origin, and live in the same 
soc ety. Thus it is, when the human heart is once set on 
Sing from any object of distress, either rea or imag- 
narv. it often with indiscreet tenderness, embraces subjects 
which judgment subsequently condemns. ThismJteC^ 
with conscientious men upon this subject, and what .1 ha * 
in charity to your judgment, imputed to you. J^g^J 
£ a more unpleasant view of this subject, with which you 



28 Cains Gracchus, «7Vb. 5. 

are compelled to be informed, and which has not even the 
excuse of good motives, or good feelings. There is known 
to exist to a considerable extent in the non-slave-holding 
States, a sentiment unfriendly to this principle of servitude 
among us, growing out of the prejudices of education, and an 
ignorance of the actual condition of slavery among us; aggra- 
vated in many instances by sectional and political considera- 
tions. Men operated on by such feelings, could not fail to 
perceive the natural tendency of such institutions to the pro- 
motion of their views, and now, that the abolition principle 
is avowed, must flock to your standard in the full conviction 
of receiving a hearty and wide-spread co-operation by means 
of a regularly organized corps, leagued together by a com- 
mon purpose.* 

I Mill now ask your attention very briefly to the extraor- 
dinary effort made in Congress to impose an unconstitu- 
tional and most wicked restraint upon the new State of 
Missouri; to the subsequent resolutions of Messrs. King 
and Tucker in the Senate and House of Representatives, 
seeking by covert advances to engage the Federal Govern- 
ment in acts of legislation upon this subject. I do not pro- 
pose to trouble you with any argument either upon the cha- 
racter or constitutionality of these topics. This would be 
unnecessary; because the united voice of the whole commu- 
nity, (with the exception of the votaries of abolition) has 
accorded them a fate, which it is hoped will ever render 
them harmless and inoffensive. But they have been sum- 
moned to your recollection for another purpose: To prove 
that doctrines and opinions of that character never dared to 
intrude themselves into the acts of Federal Legislation, and 
to assume the form of grave propositions in Congress,, until 
subsequent to the establishment of your Society in the coun- 
try; and that although I may not have the means of esta- 
blishing a clear concert and connection between these poli- 
tical movements, and the operations of your Society, yet the 

* Note.— See the Report of the Committee at Boston upon thi9 subject, 
dated the 7th day of September, 1822; extracts from which were quoted 
in my last communication to the Auxiliary Society in Powhatan; also the 
following resolution of the Legislature of Connecticut, recently adopted: 

"Resolved by this Assembly, that the existence of slavery in the United 
States of America is a great national evil, and that the people and states 
ought to participate in the burthen and duties of removing it, by all just 
and prudent measures which may be adopted, with a due regard to their 
internal peace and mutual harmony; and that a system of colonization under 
the patronage of the National Government, may reasonably be deemed con- 
ducive to so desirable an object." 



Caius Gracchus, JVb. 3. 29 

{>eriods and circumstances under which they have occurred, 
eave the impression that they owe their origin to the coun- 
tenance and support which your Society is giving to such 
doctrines, and that there is a strong moral connection between 
you. I pass over, too, Sir, without further remark, the 
indelicate and pragmatical interference of the Legislatures 
of New Jersey and Ohio, in their resolutions of recent date, 
recommending to the Southern States the aholition of sla- 
very; except only, to call your attention to the period at 
which they have occurred, and as tending to show the dan- 
ger with which we are threatened upon this subject, both 
by enemies at home and abroad. 

I might now, sir, almost venture, in conclusion, to appeal 
to your own candour and ask, if there can be a doubt about 
the civil character and tendency of the Institution over 
which you preside: Or the rapid advances it has made in 
its encroachments upon the subject of slavery, within the 
short space of a few years; and finally, if the slave-holders 
of the South have not much reason for their apprehension 
that there exists a connection and dependence between those 
odious political movements, first noticed, and the opera- 
tions of your Society? And if these things, or any of them, 
be true, how can you longer reconcile it to yourself, as a 
patriot and a Virginian, to remain at the head of such an 
Institution, and give to its operations all the sanction of 
your name and character? Believe me, sir, you will best 
consult your own true glory and the happiness of your coun- 
try, by a magnanimous avowal of your disappointment in 
its supposed benefits to the community, and an acknowledg- 
ment that the whole subject of our coloured population, whe- 
ther bond or free, is one perfectly anomalous, and of the 
most delicate and difficult character; and that it cannot be 
interfered with, either by Fanatical Clubs, or the Federal 
Government, without the inevitable risk of tearing asunder 
the bonds of that political Union, which has been alike the 
boast and happiness of Americans and the admiration of the 
world. But if your Society should still persevere in its 
objects, and the Federal Government be betrayed into any 
interference with this portion of our property, you will have 
only to remember, that there is sufficient intelligence in the 
South to understand their rights, and chivalry enough te 
defend them. 

CAIUS GRACCHUS. 



SO A Member of the A. C. 8. to Caius Gracchus. 

To Caius Gracchus: 

You have passed judgment in a cause which you have not 
heared — Alarmed at what you deem an approaching evil, 
you have remembered that indiscreet efforts to do good, may 
he mischievous; hut have forgotten that an indiscreet opposi- 
tion to such efforts, may he equally so. You have, without 
sufficient inquiry, attacked a man, who, if he has lent such 
a name, and such an influence as his, to a work that shall 
result in the consequences you apprehend, will, (besides 
having much to lose) have much to answer for to his coun- 
try. 

You have attacked a Society which commenced its labours 
under the high encouragement of an almost unanimous reso- 
lution of the Virginia Legislature, and whose progress has 
been sanctioned by the approbation of patriots and statesmen 
of unquestioned discernment. 

Had you applied for information and explanation, and 
suggested your fears, even to the respected individual whom 
you have denounced, or to any of those who have been en- 
gaged in the operations of this Society, you would, I hope, 
(Tor I am disposed to think you fair and candid,) have found 
yourself relieved from your apprehensions, and would have 
acknowledged that this difficult and delicate subject was, at 
least, safe in their hands — You would have seen full cause 
to separate them from the rash and intemperate projectors 
with whom you have unjustly associated them; and would 
have deemed it no small advantage, if the influence and ex- 
ample of this Society could have formed ik a nucleus" around 
which, the "disorderly and disaffected had gathered," instead 
of rushing upon the doubtful and dangerous adventures of 
which you complain. Whether the justification, I am now 
attempting, will afford you this relief; whether, having com- 
mitted yourself upon the question, both with your neighbours 
and the public, the '"pride of opinion" will be too strong foi 
it, I cannot determine. I fear, from an observation in your 
letter, that the Society has incurred your displeasure, not 
more by any inconsistency in its course, than by having 
commenced it, and that when I shall have repelled the charge 
of deviation from its original purpose, the purpose itself will 
be the subject of attack, as containing "a vice inherent in its 
nature," leading to all the mischiefs you have imagined. 

This purpose, to which the Society's labours were de- 
clared to be ''exclusively directed," is the "removal of the 
free coloured people of the United States to the coast of 
Africa, with their own consent" 



A Member of the A. C. S. to Caius Gracchus. 3 J 

Is this a purpose so inherently vicious in its nature, so 
calculated to "excite extraordinary political movements," to 
affect "the proceedings of the Federal and State Legislatures 
upon subjects of the most alarming and dangerous charac- 
ter" — "to throw the whole country into a flame, whose rava- 
ges would extend themselves into every walk of society, our 
fields and our kitchens"? Or is it one which may be fairly, 
faithfully and safely prosecuted ? 

This question I might leave to be settled by authority. 
The legislators of Virginia saw no such dangerous tendency 
in it, when they recommended it; nor afterwards, when they 
removed the injunction of secrecy, under which they had 
considered and decided it. The man you have named, and 
many others, distinguished alike for prudence and for patri- 
otism; Southern men, interested deeply, every way, in the 
question: who were- present and parties in the formation of 
the Society, saw no such dangers. Doubts of success were 
felt and expressed by many, but that it was a measure to 
give alarm to the slave-holder, was imagined by none. 

The fact is, that the only alarm it gave was to the ultra- 
abolitionists. The slave-holders were the only first friends 
of the Society: the abolitionists, its only enemies. They 
saw nothing of this "inherent vice." While you consider it 
necessarily fraught with danger to the slave-holder, they 
take it for a selfish scheme to make slavery more safe and 
profitable, and deem it fatal to the slave. The nature of a 
purpose, capable of such opposite misconstructions, must lie 
in the safe middle course between such errors, and be inno- 
cent. If you have examined this subject as you ought, and 
consulted the publications of the period to which I allude, 
you will acknowledge the correctness of what I state. 

I contend, then, that the original design of the Institution 
was, at least, harmless — that it might be prosecuted and 
ought to have been prosecuted without mischief. But I will 
do more — I will prove that for nearly ten years it has been 
so prosecuted. And this brings me to consider, what is at 
present your main ground of accusation — the inconsistency 
of the Society in departing from their original design. 

And now, sir, I must insist that we discuss this matter 
fairly and closely. It will not do to charge upon the Society 
without the shadow of proof, every thing that has ever dis- 
turbed you upon this subject, from the debates in Congress 
and in State Legislatures, down to the supposed whispers of 
supposed emissaries, and sub-agents. 

You must have seen the Society through a strange medium 



32 A Member of the A. C. 8. to Cains Gracchus. 

of alarm, to have imagined that the Missouri Question arose 
at their bidding, that tlte Legislatures of Connecticut and 
Ohio were excited by their influence, and Messrs. King and 
Tucker moved by their instigations. Believe me, you are 
wholly wrong in these suspicions. The Missouri Question 
came upon you from the North, where we had scarcely a 
friend: and I cannot recollect a single member or friend of 
the Society who was not with you on the question. As to 
Messrs. King and Tucker, I do not believe that either of them 
has ever had any intercourse with the Society, or even ap- 
proves of its views. 

Your reasons for charging these matters to our account 
are as singular as the charge. 

You say they occurred since the formation of the Society, 
and that Congress had never dared to discuss such matters 
before. This I admit, and only say we could not help it, and 
promise that never hereafter shall Congress discuss any such 
matters, with our leave. 

And you also say, that "these movements owed their origin 
to the countenance and support which our Society is giving 
to such doctrines." And this we deny, and call upon you to 
say where and when the Society gave any countenance and 
support to the doctrines of the Missouri Question, or the mo- 
tions of Messrs. King and Tucker? But I am really almost 
ashamed to be thought serious in thinking you serious, in 
attributing these great political movements to so inadequate 
a cause. 1 cannot, however, forbear to state that the So- 
ciety has presented, on different occasions, three or four me- 
morials to Congress, and one to the Legislatures of Mary- 
land and Virginia; and in these, I should presume, if any 
where, would be found the incendiary doctrines with which 
you charge us; yet, in these, you have found nothing; and 
are yourself forced to admit that you do not sustain this part 
of yoqr case with "such definite and precise proof, as has 
been adduced to show the rapid encroachments of the Society 
since its first organization. " 

Let us come, then, to the "definite and precise proof." 
First, what is the charge? The Society departs from its 
originally avowed purpose of only labouring for the removal 
of the free coloured people, and "in its corporate character, 
and by its numerous votaries in their wide-spread operations 
through the country, openly avows and propagates doctrines 
leading directly to the general abolition of slavery." 

The proof offered to support this accusation, as respects 
the Society, is "a whole chapter under head of Appendix G. 



Ji Member of the A. C. S. to Caius Gracchus. 35 

attached to the third Annual Report of the Society, gravely 
penned and made up of different extracts, from the speeches 
and communications of the members, to prove that this (viz. 
the general abolition of slavery) was one of their objects." 

Now here is a definite charge; Appendix G. contains 
"doctrines leading directly to the general abolition of sla- 
very," and was "written to prove that that was one of the 
Society's objects." 

The doctrines contained in this chapter will be found to 
be nothing more than an avowal of the Society's original 
purpose and a fair defence of it. I know that you consider 
this purpose as "leading directly to the general abolition of 
slavery;" but so thought none of those who formed it; and 
no disclaimer of the Society could surely be so construed as 
to prohibit them from a prosecution of the very purpose for 
which they had associated! The article begins with an ex- 
tract from a speech of Mr. Clay's at the first annual meet- 
ing, which, it is true, speaks of emancipation and the prohi- 
bitory laws of the States; but Mr. Clay had not so soon 
forgotten the extract of his speech which you quote, nor can 
there be discerned the least inconsistency between the two 
extracts. In Mr. Jefferson's letter there is nothing alarm- 
ing, and nothing that had not been published, without any 
objection being made to it, years before the Society was 
formed. Then follow extracts from addresses made to the 
Societv by Judge Washington and Mr. Mercer, and from a 
letter of Mr- Harper's to the Secretary. These gentlemen, 
or some of them, express their hopes and expectations of 
certain consequences which may result from the labours of 
the Society: they do this in mild language, and on suitable 
and safe occasions, among themselves; nor do they do this 
unnecessarily or to establish or propagate any other doc- 
trine than that for which they were associated. Surely- if 
they could be allowed to avow and prosecute their object, 
they had a fair right to defend their object and to show its 
advantages. Suppose them attacked by an opponent like 
yourself, who thought the prosecution of their object dan- 
gerous, and that they meant to alarm the public by schemes 
of abolition? Might they not reply that they prosecuted no 
such scheme; that they were only to labour for the removal 
of the free, and that those who were unwilling to emancipate 
would be benefited by their success? If still urged with the 
objection, that their purpose led to emancipation, might they 
not reply, that if it did, emancipation connected with remo- 
val would then be safe and salutary? And suppose them 



34 Ji Member of the A. C. S. to Cains Gracchus. 

attacked (as they were) by others who declared their design 
to be selfish and only calculated to make ''servitude more 
secure and rigorous;" might they not defend themselves in 
the manner done in this Appendix, and show that their ob- 
ject, if attained, would benefit those who were willing but 
unable to emancipate? And might not the Society, finding 
it necessary to reply to such objections, do so with perfect 
firmness, consistency and safety ? We are now trying the 
charge of departure from an original purpose; and if this 
supposed departure is a just defence of themselves and a fair 
prosecution of their purpose, it is no departure: and you are 
driven to impeach the propriety of the purpose as your only 
ground. This Appendix is declared to be penned and pub- 
lished because it had been charged (page 99) "that in the 
constitution and proceedings of the Society, or in the avowed 
sentiments of its members, there can be discerned nothing 
friendly to the abolition, &c." and "in order to justify 
(page 102) the Society from the charge of a mere selfish de- 
sign to dismiss the free, that the remainder may be held in 
a more secure and rigorous servitude." In making this de- 
fence, a more safe and prudent course could not be adopted, 
more temperate and mild language could not be used. Every 
appeal to passion or to legislation is not only avoided, but 
discouraged and disavowed, and it is published in the Appen- 
dix to a pretty considerable volume, not intended for general 
sale or circulation, but discreetly distributed. Of the same 
character, and entitled to the same justification, are the vari- 
ous passages referred to in your letter to the Society of Pow- 
hatan. They are all consistent with a fair prosecution of 
the Society's original purpose; they were necessary to its 
prosecution, and consequently prove no change of course or 
object. 

As to what has been done by those you call ''the Votaries 
of the Society," I am not bound to answer. You consider 
Congress, the State Legislatures, the Abolition Societies, 
and all who write or speak on these subjects, as votaries. I 
tell you, you are mistaken. If any of these votaries do, as 
you say, "openly avow and propagate, in their wide-spread 
operations through the country, doctrines leading directly 
to the general abolition of slavery," we can only say we have 
never heard of it, and have given them neither authority nor 
encouragement to do so. 

Whatever others may think and do, the Colonization So- 
ciety understands the true and delicate nature of the business 
in which they have engaged. Its Managers are almost all 



A Member of the A. C. S. to Caius Gracchus* 35 

slave-holders, and feel and know, and admit, that the utmost 
Caution and prudence are essential in their measures, lad 
they been the wild fanatics you suppose them, pursuing the 
mad and dangerous designs you attribute to them, with the 
rashness, indiscretion and inconsistency with which you 
charge them, I ask you, whether, in nearly ten years, some 
fruits of their folly would not be found to appear? I demand 
of you whether in such a time, such an instrument (having 
too, as you suppose, vast influence in Congress and in the 
States, and "actively engaged in scattering the seeds of 
misery and disunion in the country, with all the concert and 
effect that organized associations can give it,") can have so 
forgotten or neglected its business, as now only, to have 
alarmed you only ? while the enlightened Legislature of Vir- 
ginia, in the very midst of these terrifying Operations, instead 
of seeking to arrest the evil, and punish the evildoers, give 
them (as they did only a year ago) aid and encouragement ? 
I aver then that the Society has acted wisely and prudently, 
and I prove it by showing that they have acted innocently 
and safely — I appeal to the existing state of things, which 
could not be peaceful and secure as it is, if there was any 
real ground for your charges. I appeal to the continued and 
increasing confidence of an enlightened community, justly 
vigilant upon this subject, which could not have been gained 
without having in some measure deserved it. 

I readily acknowledge that there are many well-meaning 
persons, who engage in various enterprises relating to this 
interesting and difficult subject, in a way to justify your ap- 
prehensions, and pursue a course that must be admitted to 
be dangerous. It is very easy to be misled by falling into 
error in this way, as I hope to show you. One advantage 
of the Colonization Society is, that they draw off many of 
these mistaken, but honest men, from wild and dangerous 
pursuits, to adopt the object of the Society, and engage in 
what is more safe. That far more correct, rational, and 
temperate views are now gaining ground in the North, must 
be admitted: and it may be hoped, that many of those whom 
you now consider our votaries, may really become so, and 
relinquishing the various operations that excite your appre- 
hensions, unite with us in endeavouring to accomplish an ob- 
ject, which awakens neither dangerous hopes nor fears. 

That you may have more charity for the errors of others, 
I beg to show you one of your own.— You urge that the most 
dangerous doctrines and opinions are avowed and published 
by the. Society,— and you re-publish them most particularly, 



36 Opimius, JVo. 1. 

accompanied with comments, showing very strongly, how 
they are dangerous, and what consequences may be appre- 
hended from them. 

Might I not hare asked, can you believe this? Is the pub- 
lication so mischievous and alarming, and the republication, 
alter a space of five years, in which they had done no mis- 
chief, nothing? Was it so dangerous to express in a select 
audience, these opinions, and to print and distribute them in 
a book, Circulated with care; and is it nothing, when they 
are forgotten and at rest, to call them forth again, and giving 
force and point to them, by the plainest comments, to place 
them on the wings of every wind, and send them wherever a 
newspaper can be wafted? 

I do not doubt your sincerity, — your uneasiness was real, 
— but in the heat and indiscretion of feeling, you have done 
what is more dangerous and alarming than the most un- 
guarded word or deed of any member of the Society. 

I say this in candour, — such publications as that of your's, 
in the newspapers, ought to be forborne. Call on us, inter 
nos, when you think we are imprudent, and we will hear you 
with respect; — and show that any part of our course is even 
doubtful, as to its safety, and we will renounce it. 

A Member of Jl. C. S. 



To the Editors of the Richmond Enquirer. 

My attention had but just been called by a friend to the 
numbers of Caius Gracchus, on the subject of the Coloniza- 
tion Society, published in August last, when your paper of 
the 1 1th inst. brought me the very uncourteous appeal of the 
same writer, to the Hon. Bushrod Washington, President of 
the Society. In undertaking to reply to the specious argu- 
ments, and to correct the numerous errors which mark the 
essays of your correspondent, I rely on the excellence of the 
cause I wish to serve, rather than on any false opinion of my 
own ability to compete with a writer, distinguished, not less, 
by the ingenuity of his deductions, than by the classical 
purity of his style. I could have wished, indeed, that the 
vindication of the views and the operations of the Society, 
had fallen into other hands. I should then have been grati- 
fied with another instance of the supremacy of truth, with- 
out being obliged myself, to engage in a controversy ae 
foreign to my disposition, as it is inconsistent with the ordi- 
nary avocations of my life. 



Opimius, iVo. 1. 37 

The correct result, at which your correspondent has ar- 
rived, as to the intention of the Colonization Society, ulti- 
mately to rely on the powers and the resources of the National 
Government, for the accomplishment of the great purposes 
for which its humhle efforts have been designed only to pre- 
pare the way, supersedes the necessity of any reply to that 
part of his argument intended to show the total inadequacy 
of private charity to a scheme so vast and so magnificent. 
Private charity has already accomplished nearly all that was 
expected from it. It has enabled a few disinterested but not 
undistinguished individuals to demonstrate, that with the 
most limited resources, a colony might be planted, and suc- 
cessfully maintained on the coast of Africa. And, what is of 
still more importance, it has furnished abundant means for 
awakening the public mind to the necessity of an early at- 
tention to a subject, that, sooner or later, must force itself, 
most painfully, perhaps, on the attention of a very large 
proportion of our community. By the faithful, and the suc- 
cessful use of the means that have been thus furnished, the So- 
ciety feels itself justified in making immediate application to 
the Government of the country, for aid and protection; and it 
rests its hopes of success, in an honest conviction, not only 
that the object to be accomplished, is intimately connected 
with the '-common defence, and the general welfare" of the 
nation, but that the means for its accomplishment have been 
abundantly supplied in the delegated powers of the Govern- 
ment, and that their exercise on the present occasion, will be 
in strict accordance with the uniform pra< tice of every ad- 
ministration. In sustaining these several propositions, I 
trust I shall be able to furnish a suitable reply to the multi- 
plied, and sometimes irreconcileable arguments of Caius 
Gracchus. 

Whoever is at all conversant with the character of the 
free coloured population of our country, must be satisfied 
that it is a source of evil rather than of good to us. The 
very limited addition which it makes to the labour of the 
country, is more than counterbalanced, not only by its ex- 
traordinary deductions from the gross amount of that labour, 
but by the indolence and the immorality inseparable from 
its condition; by the distinctions which it creates in our so- 
ciety as well as in our laws; and above all, by the paralyzing 
influence which it must necessarily exercise over the physi- 
cal energies of the nation. In the slave-holding portions of 
our country, this balance of evil is infinitely increased by 
+he effect of an intermediate class of population, such as that 



38 Opimius, No. 1. 

we are considering, on the relations subsisting between the 
master and the slave. Made up, for the most part, either 
of slaves or of their immediate descendants, elevated above 
the class from which it has sprung, only by its exemption 
from domestic restraint, and effectually debarred by the law, 
from every prospect of equality with the actual freemen of 
the country; it is a source of perpetual uneasiness to the mas- 
ter, and of envy and corruption to the slave. Its effect is to 
diminish the comfort of the one, while it increases the bur- 
thens of the other; and to leave to the society, in which it 
exists, no other security than can be derived from an arbi- 
trary system of laws, not less revolting to humanity, than 
inconsistent with the general character of our institutions. 

That these are no ordinary evils — that, however unequal 
they may be in their operations, they are, nevertheless, gen- 
eral and national in their effects — and that their removal 
would contribute essentially to "the common defence and the 
general welfare," are truths which your correspondent will 
hardly venture to deny. And, whatever, may be his own 
opinion as to the power of the General Government to expend 
its money on objects, merely because of their connection with 
"the common defence and the general welfare," a recurrence 
to his memory alone, will satisfy him, that the power has been 
conceded by a large proportion of the wisest and best men 
of our country, and has been sustained by the uniform prac- 
tice of every administration from the first to the last. How 
else will lie account for the appropriations made for the pur- 
chase of Louisiana and Florida ? for the repeated acquisi- 
tions of Indian Territory — for ameliorating the condition of 
the savages — for relieving the distressed inhabitants of Ca- 
raccas — for restoring captured Africans to the homes from 
which they have been torn — for the suppression of the slave 
trade — for the promotion of Internal Improvement — and 
above all, for the late a t of grateful munifi en; e to the ven- 
erable La Fayette ? None of them can be brought within 
the enumerated powers of the Government; and in the school 
to which Caius Gracchus evidently belongs, but few of them 
would be admitted among the means "necessary and proper'* 
for the execution of enumerated powers. They are all, how- 
ever, conducive, either dire tly or indirectly, to "the common 
defence" or "the general welfare." This alone has desig- 
nated them as fit and proper objects to be accomplished. 
And it has been solemnly "de ided," that the power of ap- 
propriation was sum* iently comprehensive to embrace them 
within its terms. Let the removal of the free people of co- 



Opimius, JVb. 1. 39 

lour from the country be tried by the same principles. Let 
it be examined in its relation to the general interests of the 
nation, and it will not suffer in < omparison with the most fa- 
vourite of the a ts that have been enumerated. So long, there- 
fore, as principle is maintained, or precedent respected, its 
claim to the pecuniary aid of the Government, cannot be 
resisted on the ground of a want of authority to grant it. 

I trust, however, that the Colonization Society, in its ap- 
plication to Congress, will not rely exclusively on its power 
of appropriation ; but will endeavour to draw to the accom- 
plishment of its object all the necessary powers of the Go- 
vernment. I hope and believe it is the intention of the 
Agents, to whom this interesting subject has been commit- 
ted, to ask their Government to do for the Colony at Liberia, 
what the Government of Great Britain has already done for 
a similar settlement at Sierra Leone: to take it into their 
possession, to enlarge its limits, to provide for it a suitable 
government, to guarantee its safety, and to hold out the ne- 
cessary inducements to the free people of colour to return to 
the land of their fathers. They owe such an application to 
the cause in which they are engaged; to the few Colonists 
that have already embarked in their enterprise; to the thou- 
sands who are yet ontemplating their efforts with anxious 
solicitude; but above all, to the deep and lasting interests of 
their own country. Nor should they be alarmed by consti- 
tutional difficulties, existing only in the imaginations of those 
who have suggested them. Should they ask of Congress 
all that I have proposed to them, — and should Congress 
grant them all they ask, "no holy barriers of the Constitu- 
tion" will be broken down, and no powers will be exer< ised, 
but such as have been exen ised before, and are already 
acknowledged to exist. Territory must be acquired, as in 
the case of Louisiana and Florida, with a view to "the com- 
mon defence and the general welfare:" "needful rules and 
regulations," in the language of the Constitution, must be 
provided for its government, and their efficacy must be insu- 
red by suitable appropriations, such as nee essarily appertain 
to every legitimate exercise of power. 

Such, then, is the aid to be solirited of the Federal Go- 
vernment. And these are the provisions under which it may 
be constitutionally bestowed. In acting on the subject, 
Congress will not be influenced by the idle jealousies and 
direful forebodings of Caius Gracchus. They will not be 
alarmed by apprehensions as groundless as a fervid imagi- 
nation, operated on by habitual suspicion, could possibly 



40 Opimius, J\"o. 2. 

have suggested. They will not he deterred from the ac- 
complishment of an acknowledged good, by the fearful al- 
ternative pres* ribed to them, of either saddling the country 
with "a permanent Colonial System," or "of extending the 
rights and privileges of the. Federal Union to the shores of 
Africa, and to a negro population." Neither will be neces- 
sary. The territory to be acquired will be a; quired for a 
spe ; ial purpose, believed to be conducive to the general inte- 
rests of the nation. No provision need be made, as in the 
case of Louisiana and Florida, for its future admission into 
the Union, because no considerations of expediency will re- 
quire its permanent connection with our Government. Pur- 
chased as territory, it will retain its territorial character, 
subject to "the rules and regulations of Congress," until its 
accomplishment of the purposes for which it was intended, 
will justify its erection into a separate and independent go- 
vernment. 

I have thus endeavoured very briefly to designate the ex- 
tent to which "the aid and patronage" of the General Govern- 
ment, will probably be invoked for the obje ts of the Coloni- 
zation Society. And if I have succeeded, as I trust I have, 
in demonstrating the constitutional authority of Congress to 
accomplish all that will be asked, it only remains to be con- 
sidered, how far the benefits likely to result to the country, 
from the removal of its free coloured population, will be 
equivalent to the risk and the expenditure to be incurred in 
effecting it. In discussing this important question, I shall 
again have occasion to pay my respects to the ingenious 
writer, whose useless interference, and persevering efforts, 
have forced me unwillingly before the public. 

OPIMIUS. 
Fairfax County, Oct. 1825. 



To the Editors of the Richmond Enquirer. 

Gentlemen: In advocating an application of the powers 
and the resources of the General Government, to the gradual 
removal of the free people of colour from our country, I am 
aware that some degree of risk and expenditure must, neces- 
sarily, be incurred in its accomplishment. But as this 
would be more or less the case with every measure of gene- 
ral policy that could be proposed, I cannot consider it as an 
insuperable objection to the one now under consideration. 
All I ask, is, that on this, as on all other subjects, the 



Opimius, No. 2. 41 

evil and the good may be fairly weighed against ea^h other, 
and the measure be condemned or approved, as the one 
or the other shall preponderate. 

Against the colonial systems of the nations of Europe, a 
very deided and well-founded objection has ever prevailed 
amongst American politicians. The advantages occasion- 
ally afforded by the Colonies, to the eommer e and naviga- 
tion of their mother countries, have been more than counter- 
balan ed by the fier e and protracted contests to which they 
have so often given rise. And the < ontinued restlessness and 
ultimate struggle for relief that have sometimes resulted from 
a long continued state of colonial dependence, have rendered 
it doubtful, whether remote settlements, established for om- 
mer ial purposes, and regulated on commercial prin iples, 
are productive of very great advantages to any nation. An 
early contemplation of the evils inseparable from them, has, 
at all events, produced a de ided impression amongst our- 
selves, that the systems out of which they have grown, would 
be wholly unsuited to tbe chara ter of our institutions and 
the habits of our citizens. And it will be a matter of very 
serious regret, should the pride of foreign conquest, or the 
spirit of commercial enterprise, ever sedu e us from the whole- 
some prin iples which have hitherto regulated our conduct on 
this subje t. But it will not be fair to < onsider the proposed 
establishment at Liberia as a deviation from these prin iples. 
Wholly inv onne ted with views of national ambition, and de- 
signed neither to gratify our pride, to foster our navigation, 
nor to vary and enlarge the channels of our commerce, it 
furnishes, in its origin, no food for jealousy to other nations. 
And should it be continued in the spirit, in whi h it begins, 
of steady devotion to the purposes of Christian benevolen e 
and national justice, it cannot fail to draw around it the 
sympathies of mankind, and to find in the objects of its crea- 
tion, its surest protection against the enmity of any portion 
of the civilized world. These very objects, too, by requir- 
ing for their accomplishment a course of legislation, adapted 
rather to the permanent prosperity of the Colony, than to 
any temporary interests of our own, will guard us against 
the restlessness and distrust of parental authority, insepara- 
ble from the colonial systems of Europe. And the obvious 
advantage to ourselves of dissolving as soon as possible, the 
connection that may be created, will furnish us at all times, 
with certain means of protection against a struggle for inde- 
pendence on the part of the Colony, the only additional dan- 
ger that has ever been suggested. * 



42 Opimius, No. & 

Such, then, is a fair estimate of the actual risk to be en- 
countered in the contemplated removal of the free people of 
colour from the United States to the Western coast of Afri- 
ca. We have yet to ascertain the probable amount of ex- 
penditure, that would also be involved. This, however, 
must depend so much on contingencies that cannot be calcu- 
lated, and so much on the extent to which the Government 
may think proper to interfere, that all estimates on the sub- 
ject must be as indefinite as the contingencies on which they 
rest are uncertain. We have, nevertheless, some data for 
calculating the most material expenses to be incurred; and I 
avail myself of these, to show, that in relation to mere ex- 
pense, there is, in reality, nothing to alarm the fears of a 
Government, possessing the abundant resources that belong 
to ours. Land in Africa is of so little value, that the ac- 
quisition of a territory sufficient for the whole negro popu- 
lation of the United States, would hardly constitute a seri- 
ous item of expense. The proi ecds of a single year's sales 
of Western lands, or the cost of a single Indian settlement, 
would procure an African dominion of indefinite extent. — 
Nor would the expense of providing and maintaining in 
force, "the needful rules and regulations" for the govern- 
ment of the territory, be of a more serious character. Judg- 
ing from the operations of the Colonization Society, we may 
consider an annual appropriation of ten thousand dollars as 
fully commensurate with the demands created by the civil 
list and the military establishment of the Colony in its ear- 
lier stages. And this appropriation, so far from increasing, 
would, in the course of a very few years, be entirely supplied 
by the resources of the Colony itself. 

But the great expense to be incurred, would be that of 
transportation: and although a considerable portion of it 
might, as heretofore, be left to the contributions of particu- 
lar communities, to the general benevolence of the nation, 
and in many instances, to the individual means of the negroes 
themselves, we will, nevertheless, in forming our estimates, 
consider the whole of it as falling on the Government of the 
United States. The expenditures of the Colonization Socie- 
ty under this head, have been continually diminishing, as 
the attention and experience of its Agents have increased. — 
In the expedition of last spring, the cost per head, including 
a supply of provisions for several months, did not exceed 
twenty dollars; and, if I mistake not, the present intelligent 
Agent of the Society, anticipates a still further reduction, 
possibly to ten dollars. But that I may err (if I err at all) 



Opimius, JVo. 2. 43 

on the right side, I will assume the average cost of the 
transportation of the Colonists to be twenty-five dollars;* 
and Cains Gracchus himself, will probably be surprised to 
learn, that, at this rate, the whole black population of the 
country might be removed to the shores of Africa for fifty 
millions of dollars, while that portion of it, already free, 
would cost something less than six millions of dollars. 

I take it for granted, however, that the most zealous ad- 
vocate for the scheme of colonizing the people of colour, 
would hardly think it practicable to effect, at once, their en- 
tire removal. And even if a miracle should render it prac- 
ticable, I apprehend that but few would acquiesce in the pro- 
priety of attempting so sudden, and so great a revolution in 
the condition and habits of our country. Whatever is done 
must be done gradually. Time must be allowed, not only to 
give security and additional happiness to the blacks to be 
removed, but also to form the habits, and to accommodate the 
circumstances of the whites, who will remain, to the new 
order of things that must necessarily ensue. If it were in 
contemplation, therefore, to remove the whole coloured popu- 
lation of the country, containing two millions of individuals, 
every consideration of humanity, as well us policy, would 
suggest the propriety of effecting it by an operation so gra- 
dual, as to require not less than twenty or thirty years at 
least for its accomplishment. And such would be the an- 
nual removal of one hundred thousand, being forty thousand 
more than their estimated increase, and requiring an annual 
expenditure of two millions five hundred thousand dollars. 

But the present obje; t of the Colonization Society, and 
that to which the attention of the Government will be first 
directed, is, the removal of the free people of colour, con- 
sisting of something less than two hundred and fifty thou- 
sand. Their annual increase at three per cent, would be 
seven thousand five hundred, the cost of removing which, 
at twenty-five dollars each, would be one hundred and eighty- 
seven thousand five hundred dollars. But as the objert is 
not only to prevent their increase, but also to insure their 
rapid decrease in the country, it is hoped that if the Govern- 
ment be induced to act on the subject at all, such an appro- 
priation will be made, as will ensure the removal in the 
course often years, not only of those who are now free, and 

• Since writing the above, I am informed that a commercial company in 
Baltimore have proposed to the Colonization Society, to transport any 
number of Colonists to Africa, at twenty dollars each, to be paid by the 
Colonists themselves, at the end of two years, 



44 OpimiuSf JV'o. 2. 

their descendants, but of all such also, as the humanity of 
individuals may, in the course of that time, liberate with a 
view to their colonization on the oast of Africa. And 
such, I venture to assert, would be an annual appropriation 
of one million of dollars, calculated to defray every expense 
connected with the transportation and government oi thirty 
thousand individuals. Whether such an appropriation m ould 
exceed in value, the object to be accomplished, will appear 
from the onsiderations which I am now about to offer. 

In forming a just estimate of the objects of the Coloniza- 
tion Society, and of their claim "to the aid and patronage" 
of the General Government, it is impossible to overlook en- 
tirely, their influence on the present degraded condition of 
Africa, or to forget how large a share of the lung continued 
sufferings of that devoted section of the world, might be 
traced to the cupidity and inhumanity of our own countrymen. 
I should be sorry to see the energies and resources of our 
Government withdrawn from obje ts of importance at home, 
and wasted on idle attempts at civilizing and improving the 
condition of foreign nations. But I .an not onsider it an 
objection to any scheme of domestic policy, that its benefits 
are to be participated in, by others as well as ourselves. 
And when it is Africa and her wretched inhabitants, on 
whom these benefits are to fall, I envy not the feelings of 
that man, who < an contemplate with hostility, or even with 
cold indifference, the effort of his t ountry, to carry ( iviliza- 
tion and religion to those who have hitherto received at its 
hand, nothing but stripes and chains, and death. Ameri a 
stands deservedly foremost in the noble struggle to ai rest 
the injuries of Africa. But she will have accomplished little, 
if she stops here. The recollection of the injuries she has 
done, is yet fresh in the memory of mankind; and while the 
moral and political degradation of Africa continues, she will 
find in it, a perpetual remembrancer to herself of her former 
deeds of injustice and cruelty. If the plan of the Coloniza- 
tion Society, therefore, presented no other claim to public 
consideration, the opportunity which it offers for removing 
from before us, this horrid spectre of early and unatoned-for 
guilt, ought alone to secure to it, the countenaw e of the na- 
tion, and the patronage of the Government. But, fortunate- 
ly for the cause of humanity, it addresses itself to feelings 
more powerful in their operation, because more directlj con- 
nected with our interests, and more intimately associated 
with the ordinary pursuits of our lives. 

I will not stop to inquire into advantages merely pecunt- 



Opimius, JVo. 2. 4§ 

ary in their character. I will not dwell on the spur that 
.must necessarily be given to our navigation by the annual 
transportation of thirty thousand individuals to the coast of 
Africa; or on the additional employment to be afforded to 
our enterprising seamen; or on the commercial advantages 
to result to us from an independent settlement on the coast 
of Africa, bound to us not less by habits of early association, 
than by a grateful recollection of the act of national justice, 
to which it will have owed its origin. These are consider- 
ations that will of course occupy the attention of our states- 
men; and if they do not furnish an inducement for the inter- 
ference of the Government, will nevertheless diminish, and 
perhaps entirely dissipate the fears of indefinite expendi- 
ture, which have hitherto been allowed too powerful an in- 
fluence. But there are other advantages to result from the 
colonization of the free people of colour, that will be felt by 
every class of the community, and will operate alike on our 
morals, our habits, our laws, our wealth, and our strength- 
It is these that have already awakened so deep an interest 
in the public mind, and it is on these that reliance must be 
principally placed for an early application of the powers 
and the resources of the National Government to the great 
objects to be accomplished. 

I have endeavoured, in my first number, very briefly to 
designate the evils that must necessarily result to us from 
the continued presence of a population differing from us in 
habits; idle, because deriving from wealth but few of its 
most valuable privileges; dissolute, because furnished with 
none of the most powerful incentives to moral rectitude; ani- 
mated by no patriotic sympathy for a country, in which it 
feels itself oppressed; and requiring for its special govern- 
ment a system of laws adapted to its moral and political de- 
gradation. That I have not been too extravagant in my 
estimate of these evils, is fully attested by the records of our 
courts, by the exhibitions of our public jails and penitentia- 
ries, and by the despotic character of our laws "concerning 
"slaves, free negroes, and mulattoes." Whoever can con- 
template these evidences of the unhappy influence of such a 
population on our society and our public institutions, and 
not desire its removal, is (to say the least) an unfit subject 
for reason and argument. "He would not be persuaded 
though one should come to him from the dead." 

But there is another and a more interesting view of this 
subject, which cannot fail to attract the attention of the pub- 
lic, and to elicit whatever of humane and just and generous 



46 Opimius, No. 2. 

feeling yet exists in the bosoms of our countrymen. The 
removal of the free people of colour from the country, under 
the auspices of the General Government, while it cannot 
fail to ameliorate the present condition of our slaves, will 
furnish the only practicable means for their ultimate eleva- 
tion to the rank of freemen. Slavery, in its mildest form, 
is an evil of the darkest character. Cruel and unnatural in 
its origin, no plea can be urged in justification of its continu- 
ance, but the plea of necessity — not that necessity which 
arises from our habits, our prejudices, or our wants; but the 
necessity which requires us to submit to existing evils, ra- 
ther than substitute, by their removal, others of a more se- 
rious and destructive character. It was this which procured 
the recognition of slavery in the Constitution of our coun- 
try; it is this which has justified its continuance to the pre- 
sent day; and it is in this only that we can find a palliation 
for the rigours of our law, which might otherwise be con- 
sidered as the cruel enactments of a dark and dismal des- 
potism. There have not, I am aware, been found wanting 
individuals to deny both the existence and the obligations of 
su h a necessity. There are men, actuated, in some instan- 
ces, by a blind and mistaken enthusiasm, and in others, by 
a spirit of mischievous intent, loudly calling on us, in the 
names of justice and humanity, for the immediate and un- 
qualified emancipation of our slaves. To men of this de- 
scription, it is in vain to point out the inevitable effects of 
such a ( ourse, as well on the objects of their real or pre- 
tended solicitude, as on the community in which they exist. 
It is in vain to assure them, that while the preservation of 
the latter would require a policy even more rigourous than 
pertains to slavery itself, the short-lived and nominal free- 
dom of the former must end in their ultimate and utter ex- 
tinction. All this is of no consequence. Provided slavery 
be abolished in name, it matters not what horrors may be 
substituted in its room. 

There is another class of our citizens, on the contrary, 
less numerous, it is true, but not less mistaken in their opin- 
ions, and not less intolerant in maintaining them. They 
look upon slavery as something of divine origin, "stamped 
with the seal of destiny," and not to be assailed by "the 
feeble efforts of man." Acknowledging no term to its exis- 
tence, they even contemplate, with undissembled hostility, 
every attempt to ameliorate its condition. It was by men 
of this description, that the abolition of the slave trade 
was so long and so successfully resisted. It was mer- 



Upimius, JW». 2. 47 

like these, who fought and conquered for a while, but 
finally fell before the triumphant eloquence of Pitt and Fox, 
of Wilberforce and Burke. And it is the same class of po- 
liticians in our own country, who are now endeavouring to 
throw every obstacle in the way of whatever may soften 
the hard necessities of slavery, or open the way to its gra- 
dual and voluntary extermination. 

With the more rational and intelligent part of the commu- 
nity, it will constitute no cause of objection to the Coloniza- 
tion Society, that in its principles and its plans, it avoids 
both of the extremes which I have thus endeavoured to ex- 
plain. Recognising the constitutional and legitimate exis- 
tence of slavery, it seeks not to interfere, either directly or 
indirectly, with the rights which it creates. Acknowledging 
the necessity by which its present continuance and the rigour- 
Ous provisions for its maintenance are justified, it aims only 
at furnishing the States, in which it exists, the means of im- 
mediately lessening its severities, and of ultimately reliev- 
ing themselves from its acknowledged evils. It is for these 
purposes, in part, that it is now about to urge the Govern- 
ment of the Union to commence the gradual removal of the 
free people of colour to the Western coast of Africa. The 
existence of that description of population in the vicinity, 
and in the very midst of our slaves, has ever been a source 
of complicated evils to us. Distinguished from their unfor- 
tunate brethren only by their freedom from domestic restraint, 
the comparative facility with which they are enabled to in- 
dulge their vicious propensities, while it is a source of envy 
and of restless anxiety to the slave, furnishes him, at the 
same time, with a temptation to guilt and with the means of 
concealment. Hence, have arisen some of the severest pro- 
visions of our laws — hence, the most cruel restraints to which 
slavery is subjected— and hence only, the early discourage- 
ment, and of late years, the absolute prohibition of emanci- 
pation in many of the Southern States. Let the cause of 
these evils be removed, let the source of these rigours be dried 
up, and the evils and the rigours will disappear together. The 
very first step that shall be taken by the Government of the 
United States, for the removal of the free people of colour to 
the coast of Africa, will be a signal for the general amelio- 
ration of the condition of slavery, and in the end, will leave 
humanity but little to deplore in relation to it, but the con- 
tinuance of its name and its forms. 

Nor am I without a hope, that even these will ultimately 
be abandoned. There is no riveted attachment to slavery 



48 Opimius, JVo. 2. 

prevailing extensively in any portion of our country. Its 
injurious effects on our habits, our morals, our individual 
wealth, and more especially on our national strength and 
prosperity, are universally felt, and almost universally ac- 
knowledged. Its evils are submitted to, from the stern ne- 
cessity which imposes them upon us. W e have made no effort 
to relieve ourselves from their operation, from the fear of 
encountering others still greater than those we should escape. 
We have felt the utter impossibility of uniting in the same 
community and of admitting to an equality of privileges two 
classes of freemen, not more unlike in colour than in the 
characters of their minds and the propensities of their natures. 
From this dilemma, the plan of the Colonization Society af- 
fords us the only effectual relief. The asylum (under the 
auspices of the General Government, the safe asylum) which 
would be provided in Africa for liberated slaves, would fur- 
nish abundant scope for action, to individual humanity and 
the legislative wisdom of the States. Of the certain opera- 
tions of the former, we have the means of judging in what 
it has already done. The favourable reception of the pro- 
positions of the Colonization Society in every part of the 
Southern country, evince a general and heartfelt interest in 
its success. And the many sacrifices of individual wealth 
which have already been made to a generous and enlighten- 
ed philanthropy, are unerring prognostics of the more exten- 
sive operation of the same benevolent feeling, when its happy 
results in relation to those by whom it is excited, shall be 
rendered certain by the protection and support of the Govern- 
ment of the country. The interferes c of the authorities of 
the States will be more slow, perhaps, but not less certain in 
the end. The feelings of the people must ultimately reach 
their legislative bodies — and these will find, in the contem- 
plated African establishment, the removal of the greatest, if 
not the only serious obstacle to the gradual emancipation of 
the slaves within the limits of their respective States. No 
longer perplexed with the difficulty of providing for them 
when liberated, they will more readily engage in the less ar- 
duous but not less important duty of determining how and 
when their liberation shall be effected. 

Such, then, are the objects of the Colonization Society, 
and such the grounds on which its claims to the favourable 
consideration of the nation, and to the aid and patronage of 
the General Government, may very fairly be urged. It re- 
mains with an enlightened public to decide, whether objects 
such as these shall be defeated by arguments calculated to 



Opimius, JVb. 3« 4$ 

strip the Government of its most necessary powers, and to 
perpetuate to the nation the acknowledged evils of domestic 
slavery. For my own part, I fear not the result. '"Magna 
est Veritas, et prevalebit." OPIMIUS. 

Fairfax County, October 25* 1825. 



To the Editors of the Richmond Enquirer* 

Gentlemen: I am aware that very great excitement ex* 
ists in many parts of the Southern country, on the subject 
of the Colonization Society. Nor am I at all surprised at 
it, when I behold such writers as Caius Gracchus, devoting 
their time and talents to the propagation of the most errone- 
ous views, in relation to the objects and operations of the 
Society. It is very natural that those who look to the pub- 
lic prints, as their only source of general information, 
should be alarmed and indignant, when told in the most 
polished language, and in a tone of apparent sincerity, that 
there exists in the very midst of them, a body of men, deny- 
ing the validity of long established rights, secretly under- 
mining the value of their property, acting in connection with 
the Abolition Societies of the North, stimulating the Govern- 
ments of the non-slave-holding States to a dire t and imperti- 
nent interference with their negroes, and giving birth to 
many of the most hateful questions that have ever agitated the 
councils of the country. When these and a thousand other 
things of similar import, are publicly proclaimed through 
the medium of an influential press, we ought not to bo sur- 
prised, if the community should be stirred into actual com- 
motion, and even be induced to boast, in the indiscreet lan- 
guage of their prompter, that they "have intelligence to un- 
derstand their rights, and chivalry enough to defend them.'* 

But what must be the feelings of that community, when they 
shall learn, that the greater part of these high and mighty 
charges have originated in the simple fact, that a few intel- 
ligent and respectable individuals, most of them slave-holders, 
have associated together, to devise means for withdrawing 
from their country, an idle and profligate, and mischievous 
population, — and that their connection with the Missouri 
Question, with Abolition Societies, and with certain imagi-* 
nary machinations of the State and General Governments* 
has been most ingeniously deduced from the hope, which 
some of them have indulged, and some" perhaps have ven- 
tured to express, that their efforts m relation to the free 
G 



50 Opimius, JVo. 3. 

coloured people of the country, might possibly lead to tbft 
gradual emancipation and removal of a yet more degraded 
portion of our population ? Is there any thing in such an As- 
sociation, or in the indulgence, or even expression of such a 
hope, to justify the furious invective that has been pronounced 
against them? Or is there, in reality, any thing in them, to 
alarm our fears, to endanger our Union, or to bring down 
upon us those severe domestic afflictions, which a vivid and 
phrenzied imagination has so unblushingly predicted? 

Caius Gracchus may save himself the unpleasant alterna- 
tive of either questioning the sincerity of the original foun- 
ders of the Society, or of lamenting the subsequent interpo- 
lation of a principle disavowed at its earlier meetings. A 
further examination of the documents from which he has 
thought proper to make some garbled extracts, would have 
shown him that the very individuals on whose authority he 
relies for the principles in which he supposes the Society to 
have originated, gave their deliberate sanction to that prin- 
ciple, which he now denoun es as a subsequent and alarm- 
ing interpolation. Mr. Randolph, for instance, who had 
been most strenuous in disavowing any intention of inter- 
fering with the property in slaves, nevertheless urged in fa- 
vour of the Colony proposed to be established in Africa, the 
inducement it would hold out for the emails ipation of slaves. 
"If," says he, "a place can be provided for their reception, 
and a mode of sending them hence, there are hundreds, nay 
thousands of citizens, who would, by manumitting their 
slaves, relieve themselves from the cares attendant on their 
possession." Judge Washington, too, when speaking in his 
first address, of the contemplated Afri an settlement, says, 
"Should it lead, as we may fairly hope it will, to the slow 
but gradual abolition of slavery, it will wipe from our politi- 
cal institutions the only blot which stains them, and in pallia- 
tion of which, we shall not be at liberty to plead the excuse 
of moral necessity, until we shall have honestly exerted all 
the means which we possess for its extinction." And evea 
Mr. Clay, who had declared hi& connection with the Society 
to be the result of a conviction "that it was not intended to 
affect, in any manner, the tenure by which a certain spe. ies 
of property was held," nevertheless advocated the establish- 
ment of a Colony, as a means of enabling "the Legislatures 
of the States, who had been grieved at the necessity of pass- 
ing laws prohibiting emancipation, to remove the impedi- 
ments to the exercise of benevolen e and humanity." And 
he further called for the reading of a letter from Mr. Jeffer- 



Opimius, JVo. 3. 51 

don, expressing his earnest wish, "that the United States 
would themselves undertake to form an establishment on the 
coast of Africa;" and dwelling on its happy effect in draw- 
ing off "the coloured population of the country." 

From these evidences, then, it would seem, that while the 
founders of the So iety disclaimed and anxiously avoided all 
interference with the question of slavery, calculated to affect 
the rights and obligations it created, they looked to the influ- 
ence to be exerted, on the present condition and ultimate 
destination of the slave population, as one of the strongest 
arguments in favour of the measure that was proposed. And 
su h, I unhesitatingly affirm, is the principle that has go- 
rerned all the operations of the Society, from its commence- 
ment down to the present day. Its connection with the Abo- 
lition Societies of the country, gratuitously assumed, is dis- 
proved, not only by the fact that it has uniformly found in 
those Societies its bitterest and most persevering enemies, 
but that it differs from them on the very principle of their ex- 
istence; for while they refuse all terms of < ompromise with 
slavery, and deny the legitimacy either of its origin or its 
continuance, the Colonization Society recognizes, in their 
fullest extent, the rights it begets, and aims at their extin- 
guishment, only by holding out inducements to their volun- 
tary abandonment. With the Missouri Question, too, the 
So iety had nothing to do as a body. The principles in- 
volved in that celebrated question, were wholly unconnei ted 
with its objects. And so far as its feelings in relation to 
those principles, are to be inferred from attendant circum- 
stances, the opposition of many of its most active members 
to the proposed restrictions on Missouri, would authorize a 
conclusion dire tly the reverse of that at which Caius 
Gra chus has arrived. 

On the subje t of Mr. King's resolution in the Senate of 
the United States, and of certain other resolutions, adopted 
by some of the non-slave-holding States, a most extraordi- 
nary degree of excitement prevails amongst a portion of our 
Southern politicians. If the spirit and design of those re- 
solutions were to be inferred only from the angry commen- 
taries to which they have given rise, we should imagine no- 
thing less than a most unholy combination for the purpose 
of destroying our property, and involving our whole South- 
ern country in the horrors of a servile war. And if the in- 
genious speculations of Caius Gracchus are to be taken for 
facts, this combination would be rendered still more extra- 
ordinary and still more infamous by having originated with 



5 g Opimius, No. 3. 

a Society composed, for the most part, of Southern gentle- 
men the owners of the very property whose destruction is 

intended. Without stopping to inquire into the course of 
reasoning hy which this unnatural connection has been de- 
duced, I will proceed, at once, to the less difficult and more 
agreeable task of investigating the real character of the 
proceedings that have given rise to so much and such unne- 
cessary excitement. The following are the only resolu- 
tions known to have been adopted by any of the non-slave- 
holding States, viz: 
By New Jersey. 

"Resolved, That in the opinion of this Legislature, a system of foreign 
colonization, with correspondent measures, might be adopted, that would 
in due time effect the entire emancipation of slaves in our country, and 
furnish an asylum for the free blacks, without any •violation of the national 
compact, or infringement of the rights of individuals,- and that such a sys- 
tem should be predicated upon the principle, that the evil of slavery is a na- 
tional one, and that the people and the States of this Union, ought mutually 
to participate in the duties and the burdens of removing it." 

By Ohio. 

A resolution recommending "the gradual but entire emancipation of 
slaves, and a system of foreign colonization; and the passage of a law by 
the General Government, with the consent of the slave-holding States, provi- 
ding that all children born of slaves thereafter, be free at the age of 21j 
and recognising the evil of slavery as a national one, and the principle 
that all the States should share in the duties and burdens of removing it." 
By Connecticut. 

"Resolved, That the existence of slavery in the United States, is a great 
national evil, and that the people and the States ought to participate in 
the burdens and the duties of removing it, by all just and prudent mea- 
sures, which may be adopted with a due regard to their internal peace and 
mutual harmony; and that a system of colonization under the patronage of 
the General Government may reasonably be deemed conducive to so de- 
sirable an object." > 

And the following resolution was submitted to the Senate 
of the United States, by Mr. King, of New York. 

"Resolved, That as soon as the portion of the existing funded debt of 
the United States, for the payment of which the public land of the United 
States is pledged, shall have been paid off; then, and thenceforth, the 
whole of the public land of the United States, with the nett proceeds of 
all future sales thereof, shall constitute or form a fund, which is hereby 
appropriated, and the faith of the United States is pledged, that the said 
fund shall be inviolably applied, to aid the emancipation of such slaves, 
within any of the United States, and aid the removal of such slaves, and the 
removal of such free people of colour in any of the said States, as by the 
laws of the States respectively, may be allowed to be emancipated, or remov- 
ed to any territory or oountry, without the limits of the U. S. of America." 

Such are the pro; eedings adduced to show that a deliber- 
ate and powerful combination has been formed against the 
rights and tranquillity of the Southern States. The news- 
paper paragraphists have presented them in shapes, calcu- 
lated to appal the stoutest hearts. They have furnished 



Opimius, No. 3. 53 

Governor Troup with some of his choisest displays of guber- 
natorial eloquence. And Caius Gracchus, with more of 
passion than discretion, has even ventured to threaten the 
Government of his country with the "chivalry of the South." 
To knights thus armed and thus infuriated, I will only say, 
in the language of Othello, "keep up your bright swords, 
for the dew will rust them." The people of the South have 
too much "intelligence," to mistake a spirit of magnanimi- 
ty for hostile design, and too much real * 'chivalry" to en- 
list themselves under the banners of our "wasp-stung and 
impatient" Hotspurs. 

Whoever will look to the proceedings that have been 
quoted as they really are, and not through the medium of a 
blind and bigoted prejudice, will perceive that they not only 
originated in a spirit of generous magnanimity, but that they 
are marked by the most delicate and scrupulous regard to 
the rights and privileges, and feelings of the South. The 
resolutions of New Jersey, Connecticut, and Ohio, are no- 
thing more than declarations of a willingness on the part of 
States, themselves exempt from the evils of slavery, "to par- 
ticipate in the duties and burdens of removing it" from us. 
They neither demand its removal as a right, nor enjoin it as 
an obligation. They leave every thing to the disposition 
and discretion of those, who are most deeply interested; and 
expressly desire that every measure, in which they arc to 
participate, may be adopted, only "with the consent of the 
slave-holding States," "without any violation of the national 
compact," and "with a due regard to the internal peace, and 
mutual harmony" of the whole country. In the same spirit 
of liberal feeling, and with the same delicate regard to the 
peculiar situation of the South, a distinguished Senator of 
New York, proposes the establishment of a fund, not by the 
slave-holding States only, but by all the States in the Union, 
•'to aid in the eman ipation and removal of such slaves, as 
by the laws of the States respectively, may be allowed to be 
eman ipated or removed, to any territory or country, with- 
out the limits of the United States of America." And how 
have we met this generous spirit? How have we received 
these kind and friendly offers? By denoum ing them (if 
Caius Gracchus can be supposed to speak our sentiments,) 
as "an indelicate and pragmatical interference" in our con- 
cerns, and as an insidious attempt to destroy our property, 
to endanger our peace, and to subvert the Constitution of our 
country. But such are not the feelings, and such is not the 
language of the South. We duly appreciate the generous 



54 OpimiuSf JVb. 3. 

offer of others "to participate in the burden" of removing 
an evil from ourselves. And we are deeply impressed with 
that refinement of delica y, and that scrupulous regard to 
the spirit, as well as letter of the Constitution, which pro- 
poses to leave us undisturbed in designating the time and 
mode, in whi h their participation shall be allowed. The 
day, perhaps, is not far distant, when we shall be in a situa- 
tion to avail ourselves of the proffered aid of our Northern 
brethren, and when fully awake to the evils of our condition, 
we shall look to the Colony at Liberia, and the fund pro- 
posed to be created, as the surest means of relieving us from 
the greatest curse, witli which, Heaven, in its wisdom, has 
seen proper to afflict us. It is for a supposed attempt on the 
part of the Colonization Society, to hasten the arrival of that 
auspicious day, by the exercise of what has been denomi- 
nated "a moral influence," that it is indebted for some of the 
keenest invectives, and some of the sagest advice of its polish- 
ed and erudite antagonist. 

If to have looked to the removal of the coloured popula- 
tion of our country, as "a consummation devoutly to be 
wished" — if to have laboured with the most untiring zeal to 
demonstrate, by experiment, the possibility of effecting it — 
and if in fine, to have sought by the most quiet and unobtru- 
sive means, to awaken in the public mind, an interest in be- 
half of its generous enterprise, be evidences of the exer ise 
of "a moral influence," the Society must plead guilty to the 
charge, and rest for its justifi ation on the prudence with 
which its operations have been conducted, and on the inti- 
mate connection of its object with the best interests of the 
country, with the noblest feelings of the human heart, and 
with the purest principles of Christian benevolence. 

The Colonization Society has, at all times, been aware of 
the delicate nature of the subject in which it was engaged, 
and its progress has accordingly been marked by a degree 
of caution, unparalleled in the history of similar associations. 
It has preferred to subject itself to the charge, and, indeed 
to the actual inconveniences of over-cautious delay, rather 
than by a single movement of even questionable character, 
to alarm the fears of the timid, or excite the anger of the 
prejudiced. Its publications (the least guarded of which is 
less dangerous in its character than the essays of Caius Grac- 
chus,) have been addressed, as well from their style, as from 
the channels through which they have been communicated, 
only to the more intelligent portions of the community. Its 
meetings have been confined exclusively to the whites. And 



Qpiftiius, JVo. 3. 55 

ev6n its Agents, who are said to be ' ''penetrating society in 
all directions," have (if I am correctly informed,) chosen to 
weaken the force of their representations, and to diminish the 
extent of their influence, rather than call to their aid the pow- 
erful enthusiasm which their subject, in all its bearings, was 
so well calculated to inspire. But the little, the very little 
danger to be apprehended from "the moral principle" which 
the So -iety is charged with attempting to incul ate, cannot 
be better attested, than by the simple fact, that during the 
eight years of its existence, the country, " which a single 
spark," it is said, "would be sufficient to throw into a flame," 
has remained undisturbed even in its most delicate relations. 

And what, let me ask, is the object to be effected by the 
operation of this "moral principle"? The removal of a po- 
pulation cruelly forced on the present generation by those 
who have preceded it — a population equally injurious to our 
morals, our wealth, our political purity, and our physl al 
strength — a population which Caius Gracchus has, not more 
eloquently than justly, described as "degraded and debased 
from the very knowledge of their condition as slaves, disso- 
lute and abandoned in their moral character, and with pas- 
sions and feelings of the most lawless and brutal kind." 

And is it possible that any rational man — is it possible that 
any member of a Christian community, any citizen of a re- 
publican country, can seriously object to the operation of an 
influence whose object is the removal of such a population ? 
If a feeling of justice does not prompt us to restore to others, 
when we can, what has been forcibly wrested from them — if 
a sentiment of philanthropy inspires us with no wish to civi- 
lize and enlighten a benighted portion of the world — if we 
do not feel under obligation to carry to Afri a, whom we 
have injured, the healing balm of the religion in which we 
believe, — yet let us not be deaf to the calls of patriotism: let 
us not look, with cold indifference, on our country, gifted 
by nature with every advantage of soil and climate, and lo^ 
cation, hourly diminishing in its wealth, losing its compara- 
tive weight in the nation, of which it is a part, subjected to 
a system of legislation, foreign to the principles it professes, 
and destined, perhaps, to rely in the end, for its own securi- 
ty on the strength of others, and not on its own resources. 

Is there any inhabitant of the South, who will pronounce 
this picture to be overdrawn? Or is there any citizen of Vir- 
ginia, who will attribute the evils it presents, to any cause 
than the character of our labouring population? Let him 
look to our languishing agriculture, our deserted farms, our 



3G Philo-Gracdms* 

decayed fortunes, our decreasing population; let him cast 
up, in his own ledger, his profit and loss a- < ount for the last 
fifteen or twenty years, and then let him say whether the 
labour of the slave is not a curse to the land on whi h it is 
expended? But I forbear; the theme is as fruitful and as in- 
spiring as it is delicate. The sentiments I have uttered, are 
the sentiments of a slave-holder; of one, too, whose interests 
are peculiarly those of the country in which he lives. He 
has examined this subject in all its bearings, and he unhesi- 
tatingly pronounces an early and a combined operation of 
the States and the General Government, essential to save the 
country from progressive debility and premature decay. 

OPIMIUS. 
Fairfax County, Nov. 6, 1825. 



To the Editors of the Enquirer. 

Gentlemen: A friend of Cains Gracchus would beg leave 
to make his acknowledgments to the "Member of the Ame- 
rican Colonization Society," whose flickering light has late- 
ly beamed upon the public through the medium of your pa- 
per; and to inform him, that when he becomes less equivo- 
cal, in the expression of his own and his Society's views upon 
our slave population, than is disclosed by his late communi- 
cation, Gracchus may deem it no misapplication of his time 
to bestow on him some notice. At present, it seems to be a 
puzzle with the best wits of the land to discover whether he 
is really an advocate, or not, of the abolition principle, 
which his Society is now engaged in asserting. 

If I have not mistaken the general scope of the remarks 
of Gracchus, it is a matter of perfect indifference in his view 
of the subject, whether the principle of abolition is to be con- 
sidered as & fungus, which has fastened itself upon the Soci- 
ety; formed and concreted of the elements of disafiV tion, 
since its first foundation; or whether, it be a covert princi- 
ple, which has at all times lurked in its bosom, and been 
cherished "under the rose." In either event, its mischie- 
vous effects ought equally to be exposed and depre ated. But 
lest this "Member of the American Colonization Society'" 
should cherish the belief, that the silence of Gracchus and 
his friends resulted from their being convinced by him; I will 
venture to suggest for his better consideration a few passing 
remarks, which may possibly lead him to a more ( orrect 
view, of what he alleges to be the "main ground of aecusa- 



Philo- Gracchus. ^ 

fion — the inconsistency of the Society in departing from 
their original design:" But whi h Gracchus himself, and 
every attentive reader must consider a very subordinate 
point in the discussion. Let us, however, indulge the wor- 
thy "Member," for a moment, in his own choice of objec- 
tions. Gracchus, after taking an enlarged view in his com- 
munications to the Auxiliary Society of Powhatan, for the 
purpose of showing the impolicy and danger of the scheme; 
in his closing address to Judge Washington, stated, that 
"he believed he should have but little difficulty in proving 
to the satisfaction of all unprejudiced minds, that the origi- 
nal objects of the Association had been changed, and that 
views and objects were now in contemplation, which formed 
no part of their original purpose." The expression of this 
opinion imposed upon him a duty of a iwo-fold character: 
1st, to prove, by a reference to the most authentic docu- 
ments of the Society, and the public declarations of its 
founders at the time, what were its original objects; and 
2dly, to show by the declarations and acts of the Society, 
and the opinions and practices of their acknowledged Agents 
throughout the country, what are its views and objects now. 
This he has no doubt done to the satisfaction of all but the 
worthy "Member" and his associates. But as he is still 
sceptical, let him examine the Constitution of the Society, 
which of all other documents ought to contain the declara- 
tion of so important a principle, if it had been designed to 
adopt it.* Yet in this instrument not an intimation even, 
is to be found of such a sentiment! No, not even eventual or, 
consequential abolition! Let him advert, too, to the style of 
the Association, which in Societies are generally declarative 
of their objects. Here, too, will be found nothing but the" 
simple title of "The American Society for Colonizing the 
Free People of Colour of the United States."— Bat to place 
this matter beyond all possibility of a doubt, can it be seri- 
ously contended that such men as Messrs. Randolph and 
Clay were practising a fraud upon society, when they de- 
clare, at the very moment of founding the institution, that 
it was not their object to touch or agitate any question con- 

•See the 2d Article of the Constitution, in the following words;—;' 
"Art. 2d. The object to which its attention is to be exclusively dir, 
is to promote and execute a plan of colonization (with their con-" 
the free people of colour residing in our country, in Africa, < t 
place as Congress shall deem most expedient. And the Society sl\l; t :V 
to effect this object, in co-operation with the General C<. Yirntae™: 
.»uch of the States as may adopt regulations upon th 

H 



5S Philo-Gracchus. 

nected with the abolition of slavery; and that it was upon thai 
condition only, that the gentlemen from the South and West 
had attended, or could be expected to co-operate? Or, does 
the worthy ''Member" distrust the sincerity of Mr. Key 
when he proposed his solemn disclaimer upon this subject? 
I hope for the credit of his Institution he does not. 

But he is still incredulous, if I have understood him cor- 
rectly, (for upon this subjet he is quite mysterious,) whe- 
ther the Society, in its corporate character, or its subordi- 
nate Agents, are conducting their scheme with an eye to the 
eventual abolition of slavery in the United States. 

Without undertaking a dull criticism to show what this 
extract or the other extract exactly proves, as quoted in Ap- 
pendix G; let me emphatically ask, for what object was that 
chapter made up and given to the world as the solemn act of 
the Society: being appended to the third Annual Report, and 
bound up and circulated with it by order of the Managers? 
Let the answer be given by the Society itself. It was be- 
cause it had been affirmed, "that in the Constitution and 
proceedings of the Society, or in the avowed sentiments of 
its members, there could be discovered nothing friendly to 
the abolition of slavery in the United States." Here then 
is a distinct corporate act, undertaken and performed for the 
express purpose of disproving this charge, and declaring to 
the whole world that the Society was operating with an eye 
among other things to the eventual abolition of slavery. But 
the proofs upon this subject do not end here; they might be 
made to thicken around the worthy "Member," until even 
incredulity itself would cease to doubt; were I not restrained 
by the proper limits of a publication of this sort, as well as 
a due respei t for the public understanding. A few more 
then, only, of a very striking character, shall be offered. 
Let us hear General Harper, one of the Vice-Presidents, in 
his speech before the Society, the 20th of February, 1 824, in 
support of his proposition to memorialize Congress, and 
which will be found prefixed to the sixth Annual Report: — 
"A few hundred," says the General, "at the utmost a thou- 
sand Colonists, might be within the reach of our efforts; by 
such an experiment we shall demonstrate this, and essentially 
benefit the individuals: but further by our exertions we can- 
not hope to go. In the mean while there exists among us a 
great social evil (alluding to our slave population) a cancer 
on the body politic, that is gradually eating its way to the 
vitals of the State. It is at work while we sleep, and when 
we wake, and it will continue if not speedily arrested to per- 



Philo- Gracchus. 59 

vade and corrode, till at length it has destroyed the entire 
mass of our social strength and happiness. It can't be 
touched by us. It needs a far mightier hand. The remo- 
val of a few thousand individuals will, in an evil of such 
magnitude, produce but little cffert; for it consists of more 
than a million and a half of persons, and though three or 
four hundred thousand already free should be removed, the 
great political mischief among us would be but slightly af- 
fected. How then is this more extensive operation^ -which 
alone can complete the scope of our design, to be ultimately 
or ever accomplished ?" 

After stating his views of the mode to be pursued, and 
endeavouring to show that it was a legitimate subje t for 
the interposition of Congress, he further says: "To the 
National Government, then, let us address ourselves. The 
object on which we address them is national in its magni- 
tude, both for good and evil, chiefly for evil." To this 
speech, Mr. Mercer, another Vice-President, rose in reply 
and said, "He had listened with great pleasure to the re- 
marks of his eloquent friend, and he did not now rise for the 
purpose of opposing the adoption of the resolution. " But 
proceeded to urge some objection to the time of making the 
application, on the ground of its being premature, and among 
other things said, "I apprehend that we overrate the amount 
of our moral influence in society, when we indulge the sup- 
position that our system is at present ripe for the measure 
proposed." Another gentleman, Mr. G. W. P. Custis, al- 
so took part in the same debate, in support of the motion, 
and among other things said, "He would go to the great 
Council of the Nation, as the guardian of American Liberty, 
and the conservators of the public morals. He would tell 
them, you are the last of Republics; you boast that this is the 
seat of freedom, of justice, of honour, of high and magnani- 
mous feeling. The evil we would remedy is none of ours. 
It was done before we were born, and it is left for us to un- 
do. Lend us your aid to strike the fetters from the slave, and 
to spread the enjoyment of unfettered freedom over the whole of 
our favoured aud happy land." Can we mistake this lan- 
guage? Is not the measure of proof on this subject full to 
overflowing? But the Society has gone farther, and has 
actually established a monthly Journal, termed the "African 
Repository," which issued its first number in March last, 
for the purpose of promoting the views and objects of the In- 
stitution: In which it is openly avowed in every page where 
the objects of the Society are spoken off, that colonization is 



r.u Philo- Gracchus, 

their present and immediate object, but that the general abo- 
lition of slavery throughout the United States, is their ul- 
terior object by creating facilities, and the inculcation of a 
great moral principle, favourable to emant ipation. 

i would now fain ask the worthy "Member," if a stranger 
to the operations of the Society since its first formation were 
called on to decide upon its principles and objects from the 
/'ace of its Constitution and the public declarations of its 
founders at the time, whether he would have dared to as- 
cribe to it any such objc t, as is now openly avowed? It is 
no sufficient answer to this view of the subject to say, that 
at an early period after its formation, such principles 
and objects were avowed by some of its members. This I 
know to be the fact, and it was no doubt the knowledge of 
that fact that led Gracchus to the belief, that immediately 
upon its organization it had afforded a rallying point for all 
the disaffected upon the subject of slavery, who had infused 
into its operations, a principle neither contemplated by its 
founders,, nor warranted by its Constitution. 

Here then let us take leave of this branch of the subject 
forever, as it is a matter of secondary importance, at most, 
from what period we are to date the first existence of this 
abolition principle. The question emphatically is, does it 
now exist? And is it one of the ulterior objects of the So- 
ciety? Let the worthy "Member*' who defends his Institu- 
tion with such true faith, be a little more frank upon this 
subject, Let him not tell us, when the Society is pressed by 
the slave owner or Gracchus, "with the prosecution of 
dangerous objects, and that they meant to alarm the public 
with schemes of abolition:" "That they proset uted no such 
scheme, that they were only to labour for the removal of the 
free, and that those who were unwilling to emancipate, would 
be benefited by their success": and on the other hand, turn- 
ing round to the abolitionist, who might be complaining 
"that their design was selfish, and only calculated to make 
servitude more secure and rigourous," say, "that their ob- 
ject, if attained, would benefit those who were willing, but 
unable to emancipate." This indeed he must pardon me 
for regarding as the merest equivocue.— The public inqui- 
ries and apprehensions cannot thus be satisfied. Already 
has one of the Vice-Presidents, in the extract of his speech 
above quoted, declared that the total eradication of slavery 
f'would alone complete the scope of their design." 

Put the worthy "Member" has charged Gra chus with 
^passing judgment in a cause which he had not heard^" 



Philo- Gracchus. 61 

■and has been kind enough to say "if he had applied for in- 
formation, &c. he would have had his fears relieved." Grac- 
chus must feel himself obliged by this hint, but as the only 
information known to the public, consisted of the printed 
Annual Reports of the Society, and the documents appended 
thereto, with such further information as the public Gazettes 
and their "Colonial Journal" could furnish, he no doubt 
freely consulted these, and did not allow himself for a mo- 
ment to believe, that there was any thing in reserve which 
was either too dangerous, or too delicate for the public ear. 

It is also alleged that the printed communications of Grac- 
chus, designed only to excite a proper degree of reflection 
upon the principles and objects of the Colonization So iety, 
are more likely to produce the mischief he deprecates, than 
the delusive promises and inflated pictures of liberty, which 
are known to be addressed directly to our slave population, 
both from the pulpit and the press, by the friends of coloniza- 
tion. Perhaps by the same process of reasoning, the worthy 
"Member" would consider resistance to the assassin who 
might lurk upon the high way to rob me both of my purse 
and my life, as improper; because such resistance might lead 
to a breach of the peace. So, too, if our country was inva- 
ded by a foreign foe, who sought to overturn our Government 
and lay waste our dwellings, we ought not to resist; because 
this too might lead to bloodshed. If this be the "close" lo- 
gic which the worthy "Member" holds up in terrorem to 
Gracchus, then indeed he has much reason to fear. 

But he is kind enough to invite Gracchus to come among 
them "inter nos." This invitation I presume he will de- 
cline for many very good reasons. One among others, be- 
cause it is believed Gracchus would make neither a good 
schemer nor an abolitionist. 

We are told, also, that the Missouri Question came upon 
us from the North. This is most certainly true; and it is 
the countenance given by the doctrines of the Society to such 
visits, of which we complain. Let the worthy "Member" 
recollect that the seducer is seldom bold; that he carefully 
watches the hapless moment when he is to extend his embrace, 
and is often invited by the indiscretion of his victim. 

But we have the kind and gracious promise that this ques- 
tion, and all others of a kindred character, shall never more 
be discussed in Congress with the consent of the Society. If 
this assurance did not stand opposed by the numerous memo- 
rials which the Society have already presented to Congress, 
and by the fact, that it is their intention to renew their en- 



t>£ Cuius Gracchus, JSi'o. 4. 

treaties at the ensuing session, the slave-holders of the South 
might he more confiding. But as at present advised, they 
can only acknowledge the kindness of sucli a promise, while 
they would rather choose to rely upon their-ownl efforts for 
security. 

And in conclusion, I must say to the worthy \ 'Member", 
in equal "candour" with his admonition to Gracchus, that 
while I consider all attempts to legislate upon the subject by 
the Federal Government as the grossest usurpation; yet, the 
mischief to be apprehended from that quarter bears no sort of 
proportion to the horrible catalogue of ills which are destin- 
ed to flow from the machinations and schemes of fanatical 
clubs, scattered over the face of the country in the form of 
Auxiliary Societies, spreading discontent and insubordina- 
tion where contentment, happiness, and industry ought to ob- 
tain: That efforts like these ought indeed to be "forborne." 

PHILO-GRACCHUS. 

J\'ote. — It is perhaps proper here to acknowledge that Philo-Gracchus is 
from the same pen with Caius Gracchus, and was given to the public un- 
der a different signature because Gracchus was at that time assailed from 
several different quarters; and it was thought adviseable to preserve the 
principal signature from being involved in too many controversies at the 
-ame time. 



To the Editors of the Enquirer. 

Gentlemen: If the history of the world did not afford so 
many examples of misguided enthusiasm, upon the subjects 
of religion and liberty, as well as of extraordinary zeal, in 
defence of their wildest excesses and usurpations, I should 
probably have felt some surprise, at the unusual excitement 
produced among the friends of colonization, by the late num- 
bers of Caius Gracchus: communications which were only 
designed to excite a proper degree of reflection upon the 
principles and objects of the Society, and to recall my coun- 
trymen, if possible, from the prosecution of a wild and dan- 
gerous scheme, in behalf of which, the united powers of both 
Church and State, were sought to be enlisted. But no soon- 
er are those essays given to the public, than I am made to 
feel all the consequences of my temerity, by attacks from 
different portions of the State. A worthy "Member of the 
American Colonization Society," first sheds upon me his 
dubious light; and while he is good enough to say, that he 



Caius Gracchus, No. 4. 

<<is disposed to think me fair and candid," is not himself suf- 
ficiently so, to avow distinctly, that the ultimate abolition of 
slavery in the U. S. is a part of their scheme, and that it is 
the intention of the Society to throw itself upon the aid and 
patronage of the Federal* Government. While Opimius, 
whose residence is in the evirons of the palace, and of course 
within the influence of "courtly manners and sentiments," 
visits upon me all the dread and terror which such a name, 
coupled with the recollection of the fact, that it was Opimi- 
us who procured the murder of Gracchus, and was himself 
the first of the Roman Consuls who usurped the dictatorship, 
is calculated to inspire. But it is not to impressions of this 
sort, that I can allow myself to yield. It is to the sober 
reflecting part of the community, to which I have heretofore 
addressed myself. And I yet believe, there is a redeeming 
portion of good sense in the country, sufficient to restrain 
every excess of enthusiasm upon this subject, and to check 
the usurpations by which the Federal Government would be 
made tributary to its objects. Permit me then to leave the 
"Member of the American Col. Society," to his own reflec- 
tions, and the visitation which he has recently received from 
"Philo-Gracchus;" and to pay my respects to "Opimius" 
only, who seems so modestly to have courted the honour of 
a tilt in this crusade. In the discharge of this duty, my 
first office is to acknowledge the candour which prompts 
him openly to confess the truth of my Jirst and second propo- 
sitions, viz : That private charity is inadequate in itself to 
accomplish the objects of the Association; and 2dly, that it 
is the avowed purpose of the Society, to rely upon Congress 
for protection and support. 

This, I presume, I maybe at liberty to consider as a clear 
abandonment of all other grounds of reliance, and a retreat 
to the last barrier for protection. But this is not all; he 
has had the candour, still further to declare, that the pro- 
vision of the Federal Constitution, under which Congress 
will be called on to act upon this subject, is the general au- 
thority of that body "to provide for the common defence and 
general welfare," as declared in that instrument. This is, 
indeed, what I had reason to anticipate; but I did not expect 
to hear it so unequivocally avowed. It is the result to 
which I knew the Society would be ultimately driven; but in 
the language of Mr. Mercer, did not imagine that "their 
system was yet ripe for such a measure." I had myself 
supposed, that the recent success attending collections for 
the Society on the 4th of July last, growing out of that ex- 



64 Cuius Gracchus, No. 4. 

eitement of feeling, which the day itself was calrulated to 
produce upon such subjects, and whi^h is known to have been 
greatly increased in the community, by the visit which the 
illustrious La Fayette was then paying us, would have pro- 
duced a further reliance upon this fund; and that Opimius 
and his friends would have persevered in their efforts upon 
the charity of the country, until the frequen* y of their i alls 
had convinced them, that there was a time, after which, the 
most enthusiastic spirits will be< ome, either unwilling or 
unable to give. But it seems that this hope has been yield- 
ed up in despair, and that the Federal Government is to be 
called on, "to do for the Colony at Liberia, what the Go- 
vernment of Great Britain has already dons for a similar 
establishment at Sierra Leone: to take it into their posses- 
sion, to enlarge its limits, to provide for it a suitable go- 
vernment, guarantee its safety, and to hold out the nc essa- 
ry inducements to the free people of colour, to return to the 
land of their fathers." And this, too, under the power of 
Congress to provide for the "common defence and general 
welfare," as declared by the Constitution. And here, per- 
mit me to express my surprise, that a writer so obviously 
intelligent as Opimius, should have staked the last hopes of 
his Society upon a ground so utterly desperate and untena- 
ble: and while we are left at no difficulty in dis: overing "the 
political s< hool to which he belongs," he affords another ex- 
ample to the many already before the public, that in all poli- 
tical parties, there will be certain individuals who are vltra 
in their opinions, and who greatly outstrip the masters them- 
selves, by whom they have been taught. Few there are, I pre- 
sume, who have bestowed any attention upon the principles of 
the two great political parties that divided this country, who 
do not perfectly understand, that this doctrine of the "gene- 
ral welfare" never was onsidered as a settled arti- le of the an 
cient federal creed. That it may have been sometimes assum- 
ed as a ground of argument in debate, or upon other occa- 
sions when the acknowledged powers of the Government did 
not afford a sufficient warrant for the projects of ambition, 
will not be controverted. But that it has been conceded "by 
a large proportion of the wisest and best men of our country, 
and been sustained by the uniform practice of every admin- 
istration from the first to the last," is most confidently de- 
nied. The extravagancy of this declaration might have cre- 
ated some surprise, if we had not at the same time been fur 
nished with the examples relied on to prove its correctness,- 
In the selection of these, Opimius has been sadly unfortunate • 



Caius Gracchus y JVo. 4. 65 

Not one, out of his whole ratalogue, with the exception of the 
at for the relief of the "distressed inhabitants of Caraccas," 
but is known to have been placed by their several advo; ates 
upon some of the enumerated powers of the Government, or 
those * 'necessary and proper" to their execution; as I hope 
very satisfactorily to show before I take leave of this subject. 
Let us in the first place, see what some of the ''wisest and 
best men of our country" have said and thought upon this 
subject of "'the common defence and general welfare." And 
for this purpose, I beg leave to call your attention to an au- 
thority upon this subject, which in the construction of the 
Federal Constitution, has always been looked to by the Ame- 
rican politician as a work of the first merit. I mean the 
numbers of the "Federalist," written by Messrs. Hamilton, 
Madison, and Jay. In the 41st No. of that work, will be 
found the following exposition of those terms: "It has been 
urged, and echoed, that the power Ho lay and collect taxes, 
duties, imposts, and excises, to pay debts and provide for the 
common defence and general welfare of the U. States, 9 amounts 
to an unlimited commission to exercise every power, which 
may be alleged to be necessary for the common defence and 
general welfare. No stronger proof could be given, of the 
distress, under which these writers labour for objections, 
than their stooping to such misconstructions. 

"Had no other enumeration, or definition of the powers of 
Congress been found in the Constitution, than the general 
expressions just cited, the authors of the objection might 
have had some colour for it; though it would have been diffi- 
cult to find a reason for so awkward a form of describing an 
authority to legislate in all possible cases. A power to de- 
stroy the freedom of the press, the trial by jury, or even to 
regulate the course of descents, or the forms of conveyances 
must be very singularly expressed by the terms, to raise 
money for the general welfare. 

"But what colour can the objection have, when a specifica- 
tion of the objects alluded toby these general terms, immedi- 
ately follows, and is not even separated by a longer pause than 
a semicolon? If the different parts of the same instrument 
ought to be so expounded, as to give meaning to every part 
which will bear it; shall one part of the same sentence be ex- 
cluded altogether from a share in the meaning; and shall the 
more doubtful and indefinite terms be retained in their full 
extent, and the clear and precise expressions be denied any 
signification whatever? For what purpose could the enu- 
meration of particular powers be inserted, if these, and all 



6u Cains Gracchus, *\'o. 4. 

others, were meant to be included in the preceding genera! 
power." Such is the language of the Federalist. And al 
though this particular number was written by Mr. Madison, 
it must unquestionably have met the approbation at that 
time, of Messrs. Hamilton and Jay, with whom he was as- 
sociated in the work. 

It is true, at a subsequent period, Mr. Hamilton, who had 
been made Secretary of the Treasury under the new Govern- 
ment, and after party feelings had began to assume their 
most embittered form, did assert a different doctrine in his 
Report of 1791, upon the subject of manufactures. But even 
(hen, limited it to such objects, as required the appropria- 
tion of money. But this doctrine, and the report containing 
it, never received the sanction of Congress, by any law 
carrying it into effect: on the contrary, was permitted to 
die a natural death upon the files, where it was pla' ed. And 
it is not now remembered, that Mr Hamilton ever after- 
wards by any official art, sought to establish this doctrine. 

There is, however, a still further authority upon this sub 
ject, which I must ask permission to present to the public: 
although I am sensible it will not be very ac eptable to Opi- 
mius, or any of the disciples of the school to which he be- 
longs. And if it should bring with it, any unkind reminis- 
cences in relation to the overthrow of the "Reign of Ter- 
ror;" he ought to recollect, that similar usurpations at this 
day, would most probably end in a like catastrophe. The 
authority to which I allude, is the Report made to the Vir- 
ginia Legislature, by a Committee of that body in 1799, up- 
on the subject of the then Federal usurpations; and known 
also to be the work of Mr. Madison. In this celebrated 
state paper, which has been justly considered the richest 
offering which genius and patriotism, ever gave to an ad- 
miring country, Opimius may learn if he chooses, the true 
construction of the Constitution of his country: and from 
it, I must be indulged in making the following extracts: — 
"Whether the phrases in question, (meaning the words "to 
provide for the common defence, and general welfare") be 
Construed to authorize every measure relating to the common 
defence, and general welfare, as contended by some; or every 
measure only in which there might be an application of 
money, as suggested by the caution of others, the effec t must 
substantially be the same, in destroying the import and force 
of the phrases in the Constitution. For it is evident that 
there is not a single power whatever, which may not have 
some reference to the common defence, and general welfare; 



Cains Gracchus, «A/*o. 4. 

nor a power of any magnitude, which in its exercise, does 
not invoke or admit an application of money. The govern- 
ment therefore which possesses power in either one, or other, 
of these extents, is a government without the limitations 
formed hy a particular enumeration of powers; and conse- 
quently the meaning and effect of this particular enumera- 
tion, is destroyed by the exposition given to these general 
phrases." "The true and fair construction of this expres- 
sion, both in the original, and existing federal compacts ap- 
pears to the Committee, too obvious to be mistaken. In both, 
the Congress is authorized to provide money for the common 
defence, and general welfare. In both, is subjoined to this 
authority an enumeration of the cases, to which their power 
shall extend. Money cannot be applied to the general wel- 
fare, otherwise than by an application of it to some particu- 
lar measure, conducive to the general welfare. Whenever 
therefore money has been applied to a particular measure, a 
question arises, whether the particular measure, be within 
the enumerated authorities vested in Congress. If it be, the 
money requisite for it, may be applied to it; if it be not, no 
stich application can be made. This fair and obvious inter- 
pretation coincides with, and is enforced by the clause in 
the Constitution, which declares that "JVo money shall be 
drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropria- 
tions by law." An appropriation of money to the general 
welfare, would be deemed rather a mockery than an observ- 
ance of this constitutional injunction. " 

And after showing that a different exposition of those 
phrases, would inevitably transform our federal compact 
into one great consolidated government: the Committee 
further say, "That the obvious tendency, and inevitable re- 
sult of a consolidation would be, to transform the republican 
system of the United States into a monarchy, is a point 
which seems to have been sufficiently decided by the general 
sentiment of America." 

Here then, is an exposition of those phrases in the Consti- 
tution, so full and perspicuous, as to obviate all necessity on 
my part, to offer any analysis of my own. But I should do 
injustice to my own feelings, if I did not call the attention 
of Opimius to a recent Disquisition in the Enquirer, in rela- 
tion to this very subject of "general welfare;" which most 
fortunately made its appearance in the same paper that con- 
tained Opimius's first number; thereby offering the antidote, 
at the same moment that the "poisoned chalice" was pre- 
sented. 



68 Cams Gracchus, JVo. 4. 

Let me remind him also, that the foregoing extracts do 
not exhibit their author's own construction of the Constitu- 
tion merely, but that it was to this construction, that a 
large majority of the American people subscribed, when by 
the "Civil Revolution" of 1801, they snat hed the violated 
charter of their liberties from the hands of usurpation and 
power. 

Having thus shown, as it is believed, that no su h power 
exists in the Federal Constitution as Opimius has imagin- 
ed, let us examine the different examples which he has most 
unluckily adduced, to show that "every administration from 
the first to the last," had sustained this doctrine. And 
here, permit me to offer one or two general observations, to 
enable us to understand with precision each particular ex- 
ample relied on. It will be readily admitted, I presume, 
that if any of the acts in question, can be shown to have 
been based upon any of the enumerated powers of the Con- 
stitution, or those fairly to be implied from them, that they 
are not in that case, to be regarded as examples of legisla- 
tion upon the ground of the "general welfare" merely. — 
And likewise,! presume, there will be as little difficulty in 
admitting, that any measure, however clearly it may promote 
the general welfare, yet if it is obviously based upon an 
enumerated power, will be regarded as < laiming its validity 
from such enumerated power; because there is not an enu- 
merated power in the whole instrument, the exercise of 
which, is not intended to affect the general welfare. These 
propositions are necessarily conceded by the argument of 
Opimius, so far as he claims those terms in the Constitution 
as an independent source of power. 

Let us then examine the cases of the purchase of Louisiana 
and the Florid as. I had supposed that it was well known 
to every politician, that those a quisitions had been made 
under that provision of the Constitution which authorizes 
Congress to "admit new States into the Union;" and by 
some of their advo r ates, they were grounded on the treaty- 
making power. But the true ground, is the power to ad- 
mit new States,- whi h being a general and unrestricted grant 
of power, applies equally to States to be formed out of the 
territory held by the United States at the time of adopting 
the Federal Constitution, as other countries lying beyond 
those limits. And if territory be acquired with the fair 
and bona fide purpose of its admission into the Union after 
a suitable period of probation, I hold it to be strictly con- 
stitutional and proper. The acquisition and subsequent oc- 



Caius Gracchus, JVo. 4. 69 

cupation of the proposed State in the character of territory, 
being in almost every <ase, a ne. essary pre-requisite to its 
admission into the Union, as an independent State. Con- 
gress is bound under the Constitution, to guarantee to eve- 
ry State in the Union, a republican form of Government. — 
Suppose, for example, immediately upon the treaty of ces- 
sion, Louisiana had- been taken into the Federal Union, 
what would have been the form of her local government ? — 
Certainly not republican. But a miserable despotism un- 
der the petty tyranny of her Viceroy. Hence, both the 
acquisition aruf the occupation of it as a territory, until a 
suitable government could be formed, was '-ne; essary and 
proper" to its admission into the Union, in the form of inde- 
pendent States. And hence, too, it equally follows that the 
right to acquire and hold territory, being incidental to, and 
growing out of the right to admit new States, Congress can 
only exer. ise that power as auxiliary to such an object, or 
to some other power expressly conferred by the Constitu- 
tion. This was the avowed doctrine at the time of the pur- 
chase of Louisiana; and no man, I believe, ever heard the 
"general welfare" intimated, as the foundation of that right. 
And the treaty of cession itself affords intrinsi eviden e of 
the fa t in the* 3d article, which contains a provision for its 
future admission hi the Federal Union in the form of inde- 
pendent States. 

This was a case of the first impression, and the practice 
having been settled then, I do not know that a similar pro- 
vision was introduced into the treaty of cession for the Flo- 
ridas, (which I have not now before me,) but that the same 
destiny as to membership in the Federal Union equally 
awaits them, no person will be idle enough to question. 

The next example presented, is the "repeated acquisi- 
tions of Indian territory, and the appropriations for ame- 
liorating the condition of the savages." In regard to the 
acts of the Government in extinguishing Indian title, whe- 
ther within the ancient limits, of the United States, as fixed 
by the treaty of 1783, or its territory subsequently acquired, 
they may all, without the least difficulty, be referred, either 
to the power of Congress to admit new States, and its con- 
sequent right to acquire territory for that object, or to the 
power of Congress "to make all needful rules and regula- 
tions" for the government of its territories. In relation to 
the other branch of the example, "the appropriations for the 
amelioration of the condition of the savages," I presume al- 
lusion is made principally to the act of Congress, passed 



70 Cuius Gracchus, No. 4. 

March the 30th, 1802, in which, among other things, the 
President is allowed a sum not exceeding Sl5,000 annually, 
to be expended among them in the form of rations, useful do- 
mestic animals, implements of husbandry, &c. which, in the 
very language of the act, is done "to promote civilization 
among the friendly Indian tribes, and to secure the continu- 
ance of their friendship;" and the title of which act is, "An 
Act to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes, 
and to preserve peace on the frontiers." With these avow- 
als, both in the title and body of the act, and a knowledge 
of the influence of such kindnesses upon the savage charac- 
ter, is it not passing strange that your intelligent corres- 
pqndent should have referred it to any other power than the 
power of Congress to "regulate commerce with foreign na- 
tions, and among the several States, and with the Indian 
tribes," and to the treaty-making power; which latter pow- 
er, is often more beneficially exerted by adopting measures 
to preserve peace, than by concluding a treaty of pea- e alter 
war shall have been actually waged? The next example is 
the a t for "the relief of the distressed inhabitants of Carac- 
cas." For this act of legislation there is not, to my mind, 
the slightest warrant in the Constitution; however much to 
be applauded the feelings which led to it. But that it was 
passed by Congress, and approved by the President, on the 
ground of the "general welfare," is utterly denied. The 
truth is, it was the effusion of a generous and sympathetic 
feeling, indulged by Congress and the President, without 
any constitutional objection whatever being raised, as far as 
I am informed. Can it be seriously believed for a moment, 
that Mr. Madison, under whose administration the act 
passed, and who in his official character approved the same, 
would have given this measure his sanction, if the power to 
pass it had been claimed by its advocates on the ground of 
the "general welfare"? He, who had been -so signally dis- 
tinguished as the Author of the Report of 1799, and the num- 
ber of the Federalist before alluded to, could not so readily 
have forgotten his former opinions. But admitting this to 
be otherwise; is there not a striking poverty in the argu- 
ment, Which, claiming a particular interpretation of the Con- 
stitution as settled by precedent, is enabled only to furnish 
a single example in support of it, in the long course of time 
which the American Government has been in operation — an 
act, too, limited in its influence, and whose object was as lit- 
tle likely to tempt ambition to enlarge its powers, as any 
other that can be imagined, and passed under circumstan- 



Cains Gracchus, w\U 4. 

ces to rob it of all claims to be regarded as a precedent? A 
precedent in legislation, as well as in judicial proceedings, 
can only be considered as such, after the act which is to be 
cloathed with such sanctity of character has undergone a 
grave and full discussion, and been solemnly decided, upon 
the very principle which the precedent is considered as es- 
tablishing. 

But it is said that there arc further examples of legislation 
upon this principle of the general welfare, to be found in the 
laws "for restoring captured Africans to the homes from 
which they have been torn, and for the suppression of the 
slave trade." One could, indeed, have supposed that the 
deep interest and kind feelings which Opimius seems to have 
indulged for our whole coloured population, would have pre- 
sented him with better views upon this subject; and that no 
zeal, however excessive, for the establishment of a favourite 
theory, would have betrayed him into the unpardonable error 
of placing these acts upon any other ground than the well- 
known power of Congress to "prevent the migration or im- 
portation of such persons as any of the States might think 
proper to admit" until the year 1808; and the power of regu- 
lating the foreign commerce of the country. 

The two remaining examples of this writer, are if possible 
still more unhappy. The first is the recent act of Congress 
to provide the necessary surveys, &c. preparatory to a sys- 
tem of Internal Improvement; and the other "the late act of 
grateful munificence to the venerable La Fayette." And 
here permit me to remark, that while I deny to Congress the 
power which it has claimed and asserted of executing an ex- 
tensive system of internal improvement by means of roads 
and canals; it is a subject of no little surprise, that Opimius, 
with all the advantages of residence, and I doubt not of per- 
sonal intercourse with the advocates of that policy, should 
have gravely affirmed that this measure too, was adopted on 
the ground of the general welfare only. Has he so soon for- 
gotten the nice and varied criticisms, which the debate upon 
that subject gave rise to, upon certain words in the Constitu- 
tion; in which the power "to establish postoffices and post- 
roads," was construed by Mr. Clay and others, to mean 
construct postoffices and postroads? Has he also forgotten 
that other provision of the Constitution which authorizes 
Congress "to regulate commerce among the several States,'* 
which in an equally strange manner, was construed by Mr. 
McLane and other gentlemen, to mean facilitate commerce 
among the several States? But above all. let him recollect 



72, Caius Gracchus, JVo. 4. 

that Mr, Clay, who was certainly the champion in that dis- 
cussion, expressly disclaimed the right to pass the hill on 
any other ground than those above alluded to: and is report- 
ed to have used these memorable words,- that "if the power 
could be traced to no more legitimate source, than that of 
appropriating the public treasure, he yielded the question." 
And it is furthermore believed, that Mr. McDuffie was the 
only gentleman in the whole debate, who drew to his aid 
this sweeping do trine of the general welfare; at the same 
time, that he, in common with the other advocates of the 
measure, contended for the power under the clauses of the 
Constitution before recited. But the authority of Mr. 
Monroe may perhaps be quoted upon me; if so, I have only 
to say, that I believe his best friends would take but little 
pleasure in referring to his opinions upon this subject, which, 
from the frequent changes they have undergone, may not 
now be considered as finally settled. 

The next and last example, is "the act of grateful munifi- 
cence to the illustrious La Fayette," which it is well known 
that Congress, m order to avoid all constitutional difficulty, 
placed expressly upon the ground of compensation for servi- 
ces rendered; as will appear by reference both to the title and 
the body of the act. But this, too, in a most singular man- 
ner, has escaped the discernment of Opimius; and for which, 
an intelligent and candid public would hold him responsible, 
if he had not told us at the beginning, that the business of 
"controversy was as foreign to his disposition, as it was in- 
consistent with the ordinary avocations of his life," but in 
wlii it, unfortunately for his modesty, he appears as an eager 
volunteer. Having thus shown by an examination of the 
Constitution itself, as well as the practice of the Government 
under it, that no such power as that contended for by your 
correspondent exists, or was ever deliberately acted on by it; 
I might now safely renew my inquiry for the constitutional 
powers of Congress to extend its aid and patronage to this 
Quixotic enterprise. I might here, too, very safely put an 
end to any further discussion with Opimius upon this subject; 
as he has already admitted, that private charity is wholly 
inadequate to the accomplishment of their object, and that 
the assistance of the Federal Government is indispensably 
necessary to the further prosecution of their purpose. This 
course, I should most certainly have pursued, had not the 
same writer, throughout the whole of his communications, 
approached with unhallowed hands, though with all the sem- 
blances of religion and philanthropy, a subject around which 



Caius Gracchus, No. 5. T3 

the Constitution and laws seem in vain to have thrown their 
best security. 

For the purpose of noticing some of his doctrines upon this 
subject, I may again have occasion to throw myself upon 
your indulgence. CAIUS GRACCHUS. 



To the Editors of the Enquirer. 

Gentlemen: Opimius having staked the last hopes of the 
Colonization Society, upon the powers of the Federal Go- 
vernment to interpose in its behalf, and to save the whole 
scheme from abortion, I ought probably to have felt myself 
contented with the exposition of the Constitution upon this 
point, as already communicated, and at once terminated the 
discussion between us. But I have not been able to sup- 
press the belief that I perceived beneatb his Roman signa- 
ture, the language and opinions of some Vice-President 'of 
the Institution, whose disturbed feelings upon the subject of 
slavery and of the whole African rai e, are but the reflected 
images of the Society to which he belongs. Impressed with 
this belief, I shall take the liberty of examining with free- 
dom, but I hope with all due courtesy, some of the specula- 
tions contained in his second and third communications. — 
And should this examination result in conclusions deroga- 
tory to his judgment, or offensive to his sensibility, he will 
be pleased to consider the misfortune as one of those acci- 
dents which are always liable to wound the feelings of gen- 
tlemen, who indiscreetly interfere with the long established 
opinions, and the private rights of their neighbours. 

And here, permit me also to remark, that so long as the 
exercises of religion and philanthropy are confined to their 
appropriate objects, and seek not to interrupt the political re- 
lations of society, we shall often feel ourselves indebted to 
them, for many of the best and most endearing consolations 
of life. But when they be ome tired of restraint, and bold- 
ly seek to revolutionize a great principle of labour in the 
community, upon which the agriculture of half the Union 
depends, it becomes the duty of a reflecting people to cor- 
rect their aberrations, and to impose some restraint upon 
their authors. 

Under the influence of these impressions, and a belief that 

it is necessary to expose some of the wild vagaries of folly, 

into which the heated advocates of the Colonization Society 

would involve a confiding and generous people, I shall insti- 

J 



74 Caius Gracchus, No. 5. 

tute a very brief inquiry into the real character of some of 
the benefits proposed by Opimius iVom this Institution, and 
the means by which they are to be effected; and in the se- 
quel, bestow some notice on the kind and generous interfer- 
ence with our most delicate rights, by those States of the 
Union who neither know the actual condition of slavery 
among us, its peculiarities, nor the difficulty of legislating , 
upon it: but who, in despite of our remonstrances to the 
contrary, arc ''killing us with kindness." 

Let us then, in the first place, examine the mildest form 
in which the So, iety proposes to dispense its blessings, 
which is in its proposed removal of the free people of colour 
from the country. And here 1 will frankly declare, if I 
could perceive that the present or any other plan of opera- 
tions, could attain this single object in good faith, without 
prejudice to the free people of colour themselves, or without 
any interference, either directly or indirectly, with the slave 
population of the country, I should perhaps be among the 
last citizens of the commonwealth who would raise my voice 
in opposition. But believing, as I do most conscientiously, 
that the American Colonization Society, with all its nume- 
rous Auxiliaries, are but so many hotbeds for the nurture 
and propagation of principles unfriendly to the tenure of 
Southern slavery; and that, too, in a mode the most insidi- 
ous and alarming, I am constrained to regard it with feel- 
ings of execration and horror. But discarding these rellec- 
tions for a moment, let me ask how is the Society likely to 
sirceed in its attempt to remove the free people of colour 
from the United States? This can alone be effected by their 
consent; whether the inducements be held out by the hands 
of private charity, or by the Federal Government. This, it 
must be obvious at first view, is an indispensable pre-requi- 
site to every movement in their behalf; and until this mat- 
ter of consent is disposed of, to the satisfaction of a reflect- 
ing and pra tical community, Opimius may save himself all 
the trouble of the very loose guessing in which he has in- 
dulged about the expense of his scheme; and the necessity lie 
would be under of proving that the condition of the persons 
removed would be ameliorated thereby, with a hundred other 
little matters, which, upon reducing his theories to pra tice, 
he would find demanding consideration, and crowding them- 
selves into the estimate. Is it not a fact, well known to 
every intelligent gentleman in the Southern States, that the 
free negroes, as a class, are the most inert and lazy beings 
iti all society; and perhaps more averse to emigration than 



Caius Gracchus, JVo. 5. 75 

every thing else that could be required of them? With all 
the powers of locomotion, they prefer to remain in the coun- 
ty or village where they were horn, rather than avail them- 
selves of the many and high inducements to a removal to the 
non-slave-holding States of the West. Is it not well known 
that when they do remove, it is always to the deepest haunts 
of society; to the populous towns and cities on the Atlantic, 
and not to the rich and fertile countries of the West? This 
is the natural result of their character and habits. With 
this strong and prevailing bias on their minds, what must 
be the character of the inducements that could buy nearly 
250,000 of these beings, not only to remove, but to encoun- 
ter the hazards of a sea voyage, that is to waft them to a 
"returnless distance" from afl the ties and connections which 
bind them to our country? For be it ever remembered, that 
in a majority of < ases, they would be called on to sever the 
relations of husband and wife, of parent and child, and all 
the ties of fraternal kindred which had been formed with the 
slaves of the country. Upon this subject, I appeal to the 
observations of every gentleman in the community, and con- 
fidently ask, if it is not a matter that comes within his own 
knowledge, that three-fourths, at least, of the matrimonial 
connections that take place among the free blacks, are con- 
tracted with the slaves? This must necessarily be the case, 
while there exists no legal or moral restraint to such con- 
nections. They are cut off, both by the laws of Virginia 
and the force of public opinion, from intermarriages with the 
whites; but this is not the case in relation to our slaves. 
Hence it might even be safe to estimate the number of their 
matrimonial connections with the slaves, over those of their 
own class, in the same proportion that the whole number of 
slaves bear to the whole number of free people of colour in 
the United States, which is upwards of six to one. 

And can it he necessary that I should remind your intelli- 
gent correspondent, that these natural said domestic relations, 
arc the ties that bind society together, and constitute the 
strongest ligament by which man is bound to his fellow-man? 
-—more potent by far, than all the artificial relations of so- 
ciety put together. Yet these bonds of connection are con- 
sidered as presenting no difficulty, and the whole free colour- 
ed population of the United States, are presumed to be in 
readiness, eager to assemble and await the bidding of a w ild 
fanaticism, which is to transport them "to the land of their 
fathers, elevate them to a higher condition of political 
freedom, and finally, to carry civilization and refinement to 



7('i Cams Gracchus, A'o. 5. 

their benighted brethren in Africa!" These indeed, are the 
beautiful and sublimated pictures of philanthropy, sketched 
with all the ardour of enthusiasm, and published, no doubt, 
with all the sincerity of religion. But let us not be deluded 
by mere sound. This is a practical political question, de- 
manding at the hands of all reflecting men, a rational and 
just consideration. Let me then renew the inquiry, is it 
likely that all those natural ties are to be so easily melted 
down, and that, too, for the sake of such abstract and pro- 
mised blessings? And are the free negroes of the country, 
the chosen subjects, on which such sublime moral influences 
can be made to operate with success? It is true, the Society 
has succeeded in the course of about six years, in obtaining 
the consent of between three and four hundred to emigrate. 
But without having parti alar information on the subject, I 
think I may venture to assert, that out of the whole number, 
scarcely an instance exists, when- anj colonist who had a 

matrimonial connection with a slave, has freely and 
voluntarily abandoned such connection, to embark in this 
entei . In a majority of cases it is believed, that those 
who have yielded their consent, have done so from the influ- 
en e of religious enthusiasm: and are in reality the best por- 
tion of our coloured population; while the lazy and immoral 

still remain, without the most distant hope of ever ob- 
taining their consent to become volunteers in this scheme; 
unless", forsooth, they should be made so, as I am told volun- 
teers are sometimes made in Ireland, by a little compulsion. 
And here allow me to predict, that in the future movements 
. there is no difficulty, not even the want of 
funds, that will present a more serious obstacle, than this 
/ f consent. Already, if 1 have been correctly in- 

formed, has 'the Resident Agent been under the necessity of 
teasing- the different Auxiliaries for subjects of transportation: 
especially since the accession to their funds, from the collec- 
. on the 4th of July last: thereby presenting the singu- 
lar and unnatural spectacle in soi iety, of charity begging 
for objects through the land. But let us bring some of these 
promised blessings to the onh true tests of human wisdom, 
an unbiased judgment, and a dispassionate reason. And as 
it is one of the chief objects of this essay, to expose the wild 
spe. illations of Opimius and his Society, 1 shall in the first 
place, examine that beautiful sentiment, in which it is propos- 
ed to return the free people of colour Wo the land of their 
father,." For this purpose, 1 will take the liberty of as- 
suming as my propositus, the case of Opimius's body ser- 



Cains Gracchus, JVb. 5. 77 

vant or coachman (for we have his own authority for con- 
sidering him a slave-holder). Let us suppose him "removed in 
the fourth or fifth generation from his native Afri< an ances- 
tors, and already emancipated by his master, and shipped to 
Africa, for the moral gratification of visiting the land of his 
fathers, and sharing with the barbarous inhabitants of those 
regions, the miserable and scanty comforts of life, which fall 
to the lot of these sons of Ham. 

In what an awkward and deplorable condition would he 
find himself ? No books of heraldry or even parish registers 
have preserved the memorials of his nation, or his family. 
In vain will he apply to the head men of the tribes of Soosoo, 
Mandingo, Ashantee or Guinea, for the home of his fathers, 
or any knowledge of his kindred. It is true they came from 
the great continent of Africa, and he has now 1 lie unspeakable 
pleasure, of settling in some little spot on the same quarter 
of the globe, in which about one hundred and fifty or two 
hundred years ago, lived his forefathers. It is also true that 
during that time his language, his religion, as well as his 
moral and physical capacities have all' been changed; and 
almost every trait of the African character, corrected by 
civilization. / Let us suppose this subject of his master's be- 
nevolence, l\ led there too during the rainy season, or at a 
period whe>« le dreadful *Harmattan Winds are prevailing. 
Unsheltered „,d exposed to these scourges of Heaven, he 
would pitiably make signs of distress and beg for fellow- 
ship in some :: igiibuuring clan. Hut the head men decide 
ui p-aM pa'L'ccr, that he is a stranger in their land, and 
perhaps some troubled spirit who has been conjured into ex- 
istence for tie- destruction and overthrow of their tribe. 
Under this impression of his character, should he escape 
death from their clubs and hatchets, he would probably have 
to encounter it in a more terrible form, from hunger and the 
climate. Yet all these considerations avail nothing, when 
opposed to the pleasure and delight of returning to the land 
of his fathers. But I forbear to press this view of the sub- 

♦These are certain destructive winds, which ai^ supposed to arise from 
the face of the great J.ybian Desart in Africa; and which, though of not 
long continuance at any one time, visit most parts of the continent at least, 
once or twice a year; not even the seat of the new Colony excepted. 

The opinion has been entertained by some, that thev contained poison- 
ous properties; but this is probably an error, and their blighting- effect on 
vegetables, as well as their distressing- influence on the animal system, arc 
no doubt to be ascribed to the heated and arid character of the winds them- 
selves. But for further information upon this subject, see Muneo Park'- 
'ravels in the interior of Africa. 



78 Caius Gracchus, JVo. 5. 

jecfc farther; and have only analyzed this beautiful sentiment 
that Opimius might contemplate some of the excesses of his 
club, whilst I held "the mirror up to folly." 

But it is proposed to elevate this class of our community 
to a higher condition of political freedom, than they can with 
safety be permitted to enjoy in our own country; and that 
Africa, like America, is to become another theatre for the 
practice of republican principles and doctrines. This is 
surely an imposing picture of benevolence, and I hope to be 
pardoned for questioning its practicability, out of the mate- 
rials which is to compose the new Colony. Already have 
I in a former communication reminded the votaries of this 
scheme, of the fate of the French nation in their late abor- 
tive attempt at liberty, founded upon the perfectability of man; 
and in addition to the suggestions then made, will now re- 
spectfully ask, if the history of the world, and all free gov- 
ernments, does not unquestionably prove that political free- 
dom will only abide in communities composed of an enlight- 
ened and virtuous population, and that too, after a long ac- 
quaintance and habitude with the principles of self-govern- 
ment. What, then, must be thought of the attempt to found 
a republic which is to be composed of free negfcocs and mu- 
lattoes ? Can any reasonable man doubt, but as soon as the 
Colony shall have swelled to any considerable*extent, that 
any thing but the presence of a strong militarvforce, would 
be adequate to curb and restrain its dissolute inhabitants ? 
This, no private association would be able to maintain, and 
should the Federal Government be seduced into this wild en- 
terprise, (whii h I dare not allow myself to believe,) our coun- 
try will present the singular spectacle of a nation whose Con- 
stitution and political policy, forbid large standing armies 
in time of peace, as dangerous to liberty; yet, for the sake, 
and for the necessity too, of preserving liberty, in a remote 
and distant Colony, supporting at an enormous expense upon 
a dangerous and sickly coast, an extensive military establish- 
ment. Let the politician who would for a moment think of 
such a state of things, remember the fate of the distant pro- 
vinces of the Roman Empire under the military government 
other Generals andrro- Consuls, and the facility with which 
a popular leader always assumed the imperial purple, and 
gave the whole strength of the Colony the direction of his 
own ambition. Let him remember the overwhelming debt 
of England, contracted by sustaining her military in our 
country during, the war of the Revolution. Remove this 
force, and what at once would become of the political con- 



Caius Gracchus, JVo. 5 79 

dition of the proposed Colony? Torn by civil feuds, and 
distracted by the immorality of . its inhabitants, it would 
either degenerate into the worst species of a self-created and 
barbarous tyranny, or fall an easy prey to the savage 
tribes by which it was surrounded. Hence, then, a strong 
military government emanating from the United States, so 
long as we had the power of continuing it, or a miserable 
despotism of their own, must be the lot of all those miserable 
beings who had been seduced from their homes, to go in 
quest of a higher condition of political freedom in this land 
of their fathers; 

But it is further proposed "to carry civilization and re- 
ligion to those who have hitherto received at our hands no- 
thing but stripes, and chains, and death." This is, indeed, 
the most disinterested and sublime part of the whole enter- 
prise: communicated, too, in such strains of rhapsody, 
as almost to drive reason from her throne, and to make even 
our judgments tributary to our passions. But, I hope to 
be pardoned, at least by the practical and thinking part of 
the community, while I presume to offer some of the rea- 
sons on which I have doubted its practicability in the way 
proposed. Let Opimius consult the pages of authentic his- 
tory, and karn from them the sad but monitory lesson, that 
civilized 'man rarely, if ever, yet made a successful settle- 
ment in a barbarous country, that savage man did not re- 
cede before him: and while civilization and refinement ob- 
tained in their place, it was always at the expense of the 
lives, the homes, and the religion of the native inhabitants 
of the country. I have already called the public attention 
upon this subject, to the fate of the aborigines of North and 
South America. I will now remind Opimius of the Bur- 
mese and Ashantee wars which are at this moment waging 
between the wretched inhabitants of those countries, and 
the settlements of the English in Africa and the East Indies. 
The English profess the same religion with ourselves, and 
are doubtless, as a people equally charitable and humane; 
and certainly much more so, than would be the < oloured in- 
habitants of this new Colony. Yet the cruelties and exac- 
tions of her Governors in the East Indies upon the natives 
of the country, are familiar to all; and so long as the prose- 
cution of Hastings, and the sublime eloquence of Sheridan 
is remembered, humanity must weep over the sufferings and 
injustice which the history of that trial discloses. And 
this, although an aggravated case, and rendered notorious 
only, because of the prosecution which it gave rise to, is 



80 Cams Gracchus, No. 5. 

sufficient to evince the general character of the intercourse 
between those obtrusive settlers and the native inhabitants 
of the country, and to fix this melancholy truth in our 
minds, that power and avarice when opposed to weakness, 
never yet failed to feed their own cupidity. Let me not be 
told by the admirers of this Quixotic scheme, that the his- 
tory of the world presents no example of a colony, planted 
with the same benevolent views, as the new settlement at 
Liberia, and that in the cases alluded to, commerce and am- 
bition have been the leading incentives. This might with 
safety, and perhaps truth be admitted; and yet until its advo- 
cates could show, that the population which is to compose the 
Colony, would be exempt from all the frailties and passions, 
which are inseparably attached to the human character, and 
fill up the measure of man's infirmity, the reasoning from past 
experience must still obtain. It is man, poor, frail, and in- 
firm man, who must at last people this olony. And, unfor- 
tunately for this part of the scheme, the Colonists themselves 
are to be drawn from the most corrupt and dissolute part of 
our species. 

Having thus exposed some of the most prominent of the 
wild fantasies of Opimius and his associates, 1 shall design- 
edly bestow but little notice on that very ludicrous notion of 
his, which would invoke the aid of the "National Govern- 
ment" for this enterprise, on the ground of the improvement 
of our navigation, by the annual transportation of 30,000 
souls to the coast of Africa, for the period of a few years; 
because, until this little matter of consent on the part of the 
free blacks thus to be shipped to Africa, for the want of a 
better cargo, is fully settled, any argument on this point 
would be premature and useless. I cannot refrain, however, 
from reminding him, that the navigating interest of the Uni- 
ted States is ever destined to be prosperous and gainful, 
without the aid of such helps, so long as our commerce re- 
mains unshackled by foreign wars or domestic restrictions. 
With a sea border that stretches itself along the whole of 
our Eastern and Southern boundary; with numerous majes- 
tic rivers penetrating the country in all directions, and the 
productions of a continent at our command, already does 
the American canvass spread itself to every wind, and our 
hardy tars are to be found in every port in the world. Add 
to these, the genius and enterprise of our people; and no 
man can doubt the proud destiny which must ultimately 
await the commercial marine of this country. With these 
great natural capacities and advantages, how inconsiderable 



Caius Gracchus, JV'o. 5. 8i 

and transient must be the influence to be derived from the 
shipment of forty or fifty cargoes of free negroes, for the 
space of a few years! 

Permit me now to bestow a very brief notice upon the de- 
fence which has been set up by your correspondent, for the 
interference of his Society with our slave population; and the 
oilicious and intermeddling resolves" of some of our sister 
States upon the same subject, and which he lias been pleased 
to consider as the "generous offer of others to participate in 
the burthen of removing an evil from ourselves," and as 
"originating in a spirit of generous magnanimity, and a 
most delicate and scrupulous regard to the rights, privileges, 
and feelings of the South." And is Opimius really in ear- 
nest, when he undertakes to tell Southern gentlemen, that 
this teasing interference by strangers with their most deli- 
cate and private rights, is altogether compatible with the 
principles of true delica y, and a proper regard for their 
feelings; especially, too, when it is seen that every advance 
is repelled by insult and reproaches: And when, notwith- 
standing our disgust, we are hung upon with meretricious' 
fondness, by those very "scrupulous and delicate" friends, 
until we are threatened by the agency of the Federal Go- 
vernment, to be despoiled of that very property which the 
Constitution of the country was intended to secure? And 
what is still more remarkable, these, too, are the sentiments 
of a writer who tells us himself that he is a Virginian and a 
slave-holder, and whom we are bound to believe is really a 
lover of courtesy and good manners. 

It is also said, that these most "delicate and magnani- 
mous" friends of ours, have in like manner manifested a 
scrupulous regard for our rights and privileges, as well as 
our feelings, in relation to this species of our property. If 
this be so, then indeed have they been unkindly treated; and 
the Legislatures of all the slave-holding States, as well as 
their executive officers, through whom these offensive re- 
solves have been communicated, have alike wholly mistaken 
their character and tendency. 

And can it be necessary that I should remind your corres- 
pondent, that in the case of the Ohio resolves, which have 
been obtrusively thrust into the face of every Legislature in 
the Union, not a single instance can be found in which a 
slave-holding State has understood them in any other charac- 
ter than that which I have ascribed to them; while, on the 
other hand, the non-slave-holding States to whom they have 
been presented, unite in one accord to bestow on them their 
K 



82 Cuius Gracchus, JVo. ?• 

most unqualified approbation? This single fact, while if 
marks with unerring certainty the true character of the pro- 
ceeding, should present an instructive and awful admonition 
to those pseudo-philanthropists, that this is a question upon 
the decision of which the preservation of the Union must de- 
pend. And with the avowals of Opiinius in behalf of these 
very measures, and his declaration of the ultimate objects of 
his Society, who is there that an doubt the inductility of 
their purpose, and the existence at least of a moral connec- 
tion between them? Is it not apparent, from the very terms 
of those resolves, that they all seek to effect their object 
through the medium of colonization? And why so? Because 
it is the most insidious and least suspicious mode of attack 
upon us. But what need is there of proofs and illustrations 
upon this subject? Already has this writer boldly avowed, 
that "the removal of the coloured population of the country 
is a consummation devoutly to be wished for;" and that his 
Society has been ••labouring with the most untiring zeal to 
demonstrate, by experiment, the possibility of effecting it." 
Is this language, about which gentlemen can be mistaken? 
In vain shall we be told of the "quiet and unobtrusive means 
which the Society has employed to effect their object.'' We 
know full well the ( haracter of our slave population; and 
while most other subjects of property can only be affected by 
an abduction of some of its parts, or an actual contact with 
it, it is one pe uliarity of this spe ies of property, that, to 
render it discontented, is at once the most effectual means of 
destroying it. 

But I will not pursue this view of the subject further. The 
consequences to which a perseveran: e in this part of the 
s heme directly leads, are of the most awful and overwhelm- 
ing character; and while the real philanthropist must shud- 
der in the contemplation of its sequel, the patriot who cor- 
rectly views it, will pen eive in its consummation the over- 
throw of that Union, under which rational liberty had cho- 
sen to locate itself, and whose residence beneath its shelter 
was supposed to be eternal. I shall therefore content my- 
self with having, on the present occasion, exposed some of 
the wild excesses of folly, into which even sensible men have 
been betrayed by their feelings; and into which others, less 
reflecting, have been seduced by the "bead-roll of excellent 
and honourable names," which have been most studiously 
prefixed to the proceedings of this Society: and will in future 
rely upon the good sense of my country to root up from 
among us those hotbeds of insurrection and mischief, which 



Opimius, No. 4. 83 

fanaticism and folly have planted in the form of Auxiliaries 
to the Colonization Society at Washington. 

CAIUS GRACCHUS. 



To the Editors of the Richmond Enquirer. 

Gentlemen: I have too much respect for the intelligence 
of Cains Gracchns, to suppose him incapable of understand- 
ing a plain proposition, submitted in very plain terms; and 
too much confidence in his candour, to belie\e that he would 
willingly misrepresent an antagonist for any purpose what- 
ever. I can account, therefore, for his having attributed to 
me, sentiments whi h I never entertained, and quoted from 
me, expressions which I never used, only from the extraor- 
dinary efFe- 1, invariably produced on politicians "of the 
school to which he belongs." by a reference, no matter how 
cautiously guarded, or how innocently intended, to certain 
general expressions, to be found in the Constitution of the 
United States. I never did, either directly or by the most 
remote implication, claim for the General Government, an 
authority to do whatever it believed would be conducive to 
"the common defence, and the general welfare of the nation." 
Nor did I ever assert that such a do trine had been conceded 
"by a large proportion of the wisest and best men of our 
country;" nor "that it had been sustained by the uniform 
practice of every administration, from the first to the last." 
I did however assert, (and I repeat it,) that the authority 
to appropriate money to objects, merely because of their con- 
nection with "the common defence, and the general wel- 
fare," had been thus con eded, and thus sustained; and 1 still 
rely on the facts, that have been, and that may be adduced, 
to justify the assertion. 

General Hamilton, it is admitted, claimed such an au- 
thority for the Government. Mr. McDuflie assumed it as 
one of the grounds of justification for appropriations to in- 
ternal improvement. And it was the only consideration, by 
which Mr. Monroe could be induced to sign a bill, providing 
the necessary means for repairing the Cumberland road. 
Mr. Adams has asserted the doctrine in the most unqualified 
terms. Mr. Calhoun has maintained it with very great 
abilitv on more than one occasion: And lam very much mis- 
taken if Mr. Lowndes and Mr. Cheves will not be found to 
have been amongst its most eloquent, and most powerful ad- 



84 Opimius, No. 4. 

vocates on the floor of Congress. I might go on to multi- 
ply evidences, that the doctrine had been conceded "by a 
large proportion of,the wisest and best men of the country," 
but I presume enough has been said to satisfy even Caius 
Gracchus on this subject, unless, indeed, wisdom and excel- 
lence are claimed, as the exclusive attributes of the "chosen 
few" with whom he has thought proper to associate himself 
in politics. 

But I have been guilty also, it would seem, of the "extra- 
vagancy" of declaring that the same doctrine "had been 
sustained by the uniform practice of every administration, 
from the first to the last," and 1 have escaped the indignant 
astonishment of my ingenious opponent, only by an honest 
exhibition of the examples relied on to prove the correctness 
of the declaration. May I crave his indulgent forbearance 
yet a little longer, while I endeavour to show that these ex- 
amples are not so entirely irrelevant, as he seems to think 
them? In doing so, I shall purposely abstain from all re- 
ference to the administrations of Washington and the elder 
Adams. Their's were days of Federal predominance, and 
we must of course presume, of latitudinarian construction. 
And although it has since been discovered, that "there were 
more tilings in heaven and earth, than were dreamt of in their 
philosophy," yet I would not tempt the indignant ire of my 
opponent, by appealing to an authority, in connection with 
which he was taught, perhaps, to lisp the odious epithet of "the 
reign of terror." Nor will I attempt to sustain myself by the 
acts of Mr. Monroe, "to whose opinions on this subject," it 
seems, "even lushest friends," (Caius Gracchus, I presume, 
and a certain twi 'e-discomfited chieftain) "would take but lit- 
tle pleasure in referring." I prefer to confine myself to an 
authority, which cannot be contested — to those golden days of 
the republic, when the question is said to have been, not how 
much power was necessary to administer the government 
well, but with how little it could be administered at all; and 
if I should show, that even in those days, appropriations v ere 
occasionally made, which, if not justified on the ground, that 
they were required by "the common defence, and the general 
welfare," must either be wholly without authority, or must 
rest for their justification on a rule of construction, infinitely 
more extended and more alarming, than any that has hither- 
to been suggested.' — If I can show this, I trust I shall stand 
a: quitted of indiscretion, in attempting to sustain myself by 
the practice * 'of everv administration, from the first to the 
last." 



Opimius, No. 4. 85 

The acquisition of Louisiana, it will be recollected, was 
effected during the administration of Mr. Jefferson. And 
notwithstanding the time that has since elapsed, I have ne- 
ver, until now, heard the suggestion, that it was made, ei- 
ther with a view to add to the number of the States, or un- 
der the authority given to Congress "to admit new States 
into the Union." The fact is, that from the peculiar situa- 
tion of Louisiana, "the common defence and general wel- 
fare" of our country, required that it should belong tons, 
rather than to any foreign power. This consideration, and 
this alone, suggested the propriety of obtaining it. And as 
the people, in the plenitude of their wisdom, had confided to 
the President and Senate, the authority "to make treaties," 
and to Congress, the power "to lay and collect taxes" for 
the express purpose of "providing for the common defence 
and promoting the general welfare," there could be no 
doubt of the propriety of the application of these powers to 
a measure so eminently conducive, as was the purchase of 
Louisiana, to the purpose for whi; h they had been granted — 
there was no necessity for looking beyond them, for an au- 
thority to make the purchase — and least of all, was there 
any constitutional obligation to provide for the future admis- 
sion of the purchased territory into the Union? The treaty 
of acquisition, it is true, contained such a provision — but it 
was a matter of expediency, and not of constitutional neces- 
sity. It grew out of the impression, that it would be better 
to invest with the rights and prerogatives of a State, a ter- 
ritory which our interests required should be forever con- 
nected with us, than to retain it, in perpetual territorial or 
colonial dependence. Had the public interest required, or 
would it even have been satisfied, by a temporary possession 
of Louisiana, can it be doubted, that the powers of the Go- 
vernment would have been fully adequate to acquire such 
possession ? Should the day ever arrive, when the pur- 
chase of Cuba shall be the only means of preventing it from 
becoming an instrument in the hands of a foreign power, 
for our annoyance or destruction, shall the purchase be pre- 
vented or its value diminished, by the ne essity of admit- 
ting its corrupted and degraded and remote inhabitants to 
all the rights and privileges and immunities of our own citi- 
zens ? And yet such must be the consequence of the doc- 
trine of Caius Gracchus — such must be the inevitable and 
the absurd consequence of deducing the right to acquire ter- 
ritory exclusively from the authority "to admit new States 
into this Union." 



86 Upimius, JVo. 4. 

But truly, Messrs. Editors, this power of admitting States, 
is a most comprehensive and alarming one, in the hands of 
your correspondent. It not only invests the Government 
with unlimited authority for the acquisition of foreign terri- 
tory, but it introduces it with its abundant resources, and its 
overwhelming prerogatives, within the jurisdiction of Slates 
already admitted, and even into the very heart and centre of 
the thirteen old United States. Here, too, it seems Indian 
titles may be extinguished, and Indian territory purchased 
for the purpose, and under the authority, "not of appropri- 
ating money," and "making treaties" "for the common de- 
fence and general welfare," but "of admitting new States 
into this Union." And lest the common sense of the com- 
munity should be startled, and the jealous fears of the States 
alarmed, at so extrav agant a proposition, your ready-witted 
correspondent has presented an alternative, ohje. tionable 
only in this, that it imposes on his political friends, (one ar- 
ticle of whose creed, I believe, is, that no incidental power 
can be exercised by the Government, but su. It as is abso- 
lutely necessary for the execution of its enumerated powers,) 
an obligation to show that "the repeated acquisitions of In- 
dian territory," during the administrations of Mr. Jeffer- 
son and Mr. Madison, were absolutely necessary to the execu- 
tion of their power "to dispose of, and make all needful rules 
and regulations respecting the territory and other property 
of the United States." 

The next example which I had cited to show the practice 
of the Government in relation to appropriations, was the 
annual expenditure of a considerable sum, "in ameliorating 
the condition of the savages." That the propriety of this 
expenditure had been suggested by its obvious tendency "to 
insure the domestic tranquillity," and "to promote the ge- 
neral welfare" of our own country, I did not suppose could 
admit of a doubt, and the connection between such objects 
and the specified power of raising and appropriating revenue, 
was so palpable, that I deemed it unnecessary to search fur- 
ther for an authority to a; complish them: Caius Gracchus, 
however, disclaims as usual, on the part of his favourite ad- 
ministrations, such unhallowed objects, and triumphantly 
sustains himself, by the declaration in the act itself, that it 
was done "to promote civilization among the friendly In- 
dian tribes, and to secure the continuance of their friend- 
ship." And where does this learned commentator find an 
authority for effecting these purposes of benevolence and 
patriotism ? The preamble to the Constitution, which dc- 



Opimius, JVo. 4. 87 

signates all the objects for whir h the Government was insti- 
tuted, and its powers distributed, contains no direct allusion 
to the Indian tribes; and to civilize them, and conciliate 
their friendship, arc accordingly purposes which the Go- 
vernment has no right even to attempt, ex. ept so far as 
they are connected with that ''general welfare,'* to avoid 
which, your correspondent seems prepared, either "to fly, to 
swim, to dive into the fire, or to ride in the curled clouds.'* 

But the title of the act, is "an act to regulate trade and 
intercourse with the Indian tribes," kc. and as the power 
is expressly given to Congress "to regulate commerce with 
foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the 
Indian tribes" it is passing strange in the estimation of 
Caius Gracchus, that I should have looked to any other au- 
thority to justify the appropriation in question. And has it 
indeed come to this ? Is this devoted champion of "State 
rights," this jealous advocate for limited construction, who 
has already shown that he can "cavil on the ninth part of a 
hair," prepared to depend on the title of an act for the jus- 
tifi ation of its provisions ? Or will he admit, that under 
an authority "to regulate commerce with the Indian tribes," 
it was allowable to expend large sums of money in estab- 
lishing schools, and in the gratuitous distribution of rations, 
useful domestic animals, implements of husbandry, &c. ? If 
so, what extravagant dedu< tions may not be drawn from a 
similar power in relation to "foreign nations ?" And who 
will pretend to deny, that under an authority "to regulate 
commerce among the several States," Congress may contri- 
bute to the comfort and improvement, physi. al, as well as 
mental, of their numerous inhabitants? Or, who shall set 
bounds to the overwhelming commercial blessings that may 
be showered on us, in the shape of roads and canals, and 
schools and colleges ? It was but lately, Messrs. Editors, 
that you undertook to win ba k to the fold from which he 
had strayed, a wanderer of the mountain. May I be par- 
doned, for recommending to the same kind and considerate 
attention, your errant pupil of the lowlands ? One more 
number on "constitutional construction," without previous 
communication by signal or otherwise, with Richmond, and 
Caius Gracchus is lost to you forever! 

The last example cited from the days that intervened be- 
tween the termination of one inadmissible authority, and the 
commencement of another, was the appropriation "for the 
relief of the distressed inhabitants of Caracas." On this 
example, your correspondent fairly acknowledges himself at 



88 Opimius, J\'o. 4. 

fault. Even the process of Procrustes fails him here; and 
his favourite and all-comprehending powers "of admitting 
new States," providing the needful rules for the government 
of territories, "and regulating commerce with the Indians," 
having defied his utmost efforts to stretch them to the dimen- 
sions of this "simple effusion of a generous and sympathetic 
feeling," he is compelled in despair, to pronounce it "an act 
without the slightest warrant in the Constitution." But he 
stoutly denies that the appropriation was approved hy Mr. 
Madison, on the ground, that hy its conciliating tendency in 
relation to foreign nations, it was calculated to promote "the 
general welfare" of our own country. And his reason for the 
denial, is, the utter impossibility that he "who had -been so 
signally distinguished as the Author of the Report of 1799, 
should so readily have forgotten his former opinions." If 
Caius Gracchus will examine that celebrated Report, "the 
richest offering which genius and patriotism ever gave to an 
admiring country," he will find the greater portion of it de- 
voted to proving that the Government of the U. States is a 
limited government, and that it can do nothing without a 
constitutional warrant, nothing without a specific authority. 
Whether, therefore, Mr. Madison signed the bill in question 
without any warrant at all, or because he believed it con- 
tained an appropriation calculated "to promote the general 
welfare" of the country, is a matter of but little consequence. 
He must, in either case, have forgotten or intentionally aban- 
doned the principles of his Report. And that he did not con- 
sider these principles as a suitable guide for his "practical 
administration" is clearly evinced, not only by the various 
acts to which I have already referred, but most especially by 
that act which gave existence to the present National Bank. 
This fact is adverted to, not in the spirit of reproach to Mr. 
Madison. In my humble opinion, it reflects the highest 
honour on him. It was the triumph of patriotism over the 
pride of opinion — it was the substitution of wholesome prac- 
tice for brilliant but deceptive theory — it was the magnani- 
mous concession of genius to experience. 

In thus reviewing the various evidences which I have 
heretofore adduced, of the practical construction of the Con- 
stitution by different administrations, I might go on, Messrs. 
Editors, to find food for merriment as well as wonder, in the 
efforts of a mind, which could deduce the right to suppress 
the slave trade, from an authority "to regulate foreign com- 
merce;" which could trace an appropriation of Si 00, 000 for 
restoring captured Africans to their homes, to the restriction 



Opimius, JV*o. 4. 89 

imposed on Congress, of prohibiting, before a certain period, 
"the migration or importation of such persons, as the States 
might think proper to admit;" and which prefers to look for 
the real character of ''the late act of grateful munificence to 
the venerable La Fayette," to its title, rather than to its 
provisions: but in doing so, I should be under the necessity 
of resorting to an authority, to which Caius Gracchus "would 
take but little pleasure in referring." I content myself, 
therefore, as he denies the right of Congress to appropriate 
money to internal improvement, with quoting for his edifi a- 
fcion, the following instances of appropriation on this subject, 
under the administrations of Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madi- 
son, viz: S30,000 to making a road from Cumberland to the 
Ohio; 6,000 to a road from Nashville to Natchez; 6,400 to a 
road from Athens in Georgia, to the 31st degree of North 
latitude; 6,000 to a road from the Mississippi to the Ohio; 
8,000 to a road from Shawneetown to Kaskaskia, 10,000 to 
repairing a road between Columbia in Tennessee, and Madi- 
sonville in Louisiana; and at different times, upwards of 
Si, 000,000, to completing the Cumberland road. Whether 
these appropriations were made under the authority "to admit 
new States into the Union," "to provide the needful rules for 
the government of territories," "to regulate commerce with 
foreign nations," kc. or to refrain until 1808, from prohibit- 
ing the migration, or importation of a certain description of 
persons," I will not undertake to decide. I am content, for 
my own part, to consider them as so many additional ex- 
amples "of the uniform practice" of appropriating money to 
"the common defence, and the general welfare" of the coun- 
try. 

Having thus shown what has been the practice of the 
Government, it now remains to demonstrate the conformity 
of that practice, with the theory of the Constitution, and with 
the only fair and legitimate rule of construction, that can be 
applied to that stupendous effort of wisdom and foresight. 
The instrument in question, contains in its preamble, a clear 
and explicit designation of the objects proposed to be accom- 
plished, and in its body, a specification equally clear and ex- 
plicit of the means by which these objects are to be accom- 
plished. As the one. restricts the views, the other imposes a 
necessary limit on the operations of the Government. And 
although in its progress, it should become desirable to aim at 
other objects than the preamble authorizes, or to accomplish 
those objects by other means than the Constitution designates, 
it can do neither the one nor the other, without first appealing 
1/ 



ya Opimius, JVo. 4. 

to the people for an enlargement of its powers. Whenever, 
therefore, a measure is proposed for the adoption of any de- 
partment of the Government, the first question to be asked in 
relation to it, is, whether it he calculated * 'to form a more 
perfect union, to establish justice, ensure domestic tranquil- 
lity, provide for the common defence, promote the general 
welfare, or to secure the blessing of liberty to the people of 
the United States and their posterity;" and should the ques- 
tion be decided affirmatively in relation to all or any one of 
these objects, the only remaining consideration is, whether 
the means of accomplishing it can be found among the de- 
legated powers of the Government, or among the ihc idental 
powers having a proper relation to, and being, in the lan- 
guage of the Constitution, "necessary and proper" for carry- 
ing into execution the delegated powers. If this cannot be 
done, the measure must, of course, be abandoned; but if it 
can, the measure is fairly within the purview of the Consti- 
tution, and all the powers and resources of the Government 
may be applied to its accomplishment 

Such then is the rule,* and the only rule by which the 

» The correctness of this rule, and its application to the greater part of 
the enumerated powers of the Government, have been uniformly acquiesced 
in. Some difference of opinion has existed as to the extent of the inci- 
dental po-wers — that might be claimed under it; and a certain class of poli- 
ticians seem disposed to resist, as though the salvation of the Republic de- 
pended upon it — its application to the appropriating power of the Govern- 
ment. Congress is specially authorized, amongst other things, "to lay and 
collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises; to pay the debts, and provide for 
the common defence and general welfare of the United States;" and yet, 
by a strange disreg-ard of the obvious import of the terms used, it is denied 
the power of applying the proceeds of those taxes, &.c. to the very objects 
for which they were intended; unless through the instrumentality and in 
aid of its other enumerated powers. If this be correct, why, it may be ask- 
ed, was the power placed amongst, and at the very head of the enumerat- 
ed powers? Why was it not left among the incidental means "necessary 
and proper" for executing the enumerated powers? Or, at all events, U 
from abundant caution, it was deemed necessary to designate it, why was 
it not declared in terms — "that Congress shall have power to lay and col- 
lect taxes, duties, imposts and excises;" not "to pay the debts, and provide 
for the common defence and general welfare of the United States," but 
"to execute the following powers, &c." ? The reason assigned in the re- 
port of '98, for its extraordinary construction of this clause of the Consti- 
tution, is its necessity for guarding the rights of individuals and of the 
States against encroachment: for if, in the view of the author of the report, 
Congress may under its authority, "to lay and collect taxes, &c," apply 
the proceeds of those taxes to every measure calculated "to promote the 
common defence and general welfare;" it may in effect accomplish every 
purpose within the range of legislation, and thus defeat the object of the 
subsequent enumeration of its powers. This reasoning would be perfect- 
ly correct, if the power to appropriate money to an object, drew after it, a? 



Opimius, No. 5. 91 

various acts of every administration can be made to stand 
the test of the most rigid constitutional scrutiny. And such 
is the rule which the American Colonization Society, now 
asks, may be applied to a measure, as intimately associated 
with "the domestic tranquillity, the common defence, and the 
general welfare" of the country, as any, which the human 
mind can conceive, or the human heart desire. 

OPIMIUS. 



To the Editors of the Richmond Enquirer. 

Gentlemen: If the public were interested in learning, 
that, under one Roman signature, they had been presented 
with "the language and opinions of some Vice-President of 
an Institution whose disturbed feelings on the subject of sla- 
very, and the whole African race, are but the reflected ima- 
ges of the Society to which he belongs," they would learn 
pet-haps with equal interest, that under another Roman sig- 
nature, they have, a picture to the life of a county court ad- 
vocate, whose pretensions to anticipated favours must rest in 
a degree on the extravagance of his constitutional opinions, 
and on his ability to minister to the prejudices of a large 
proportion of his fellow-countymen. But I take it for grant- 
ed, that whatever of interest has been felt in the discussion 
between Caius Gracchus and myself, has attached rather to 
the subject discussed, and the opinions maintained, than to 
the authority of our names, or our dignities; and I accord- 

a necessary consequence, the power to accomplish that object. But the 
power to appropriate and the power to execute, are two distinct thing's. 
The one may be used in aid of the interests, but never in violation of the 
rights, either of the States or of individuals. The other on the contrary, 
may in promoting' the general good, interfere with both* the claims of in- 
dividuals and the jurisdiction of the States. The power to appropriate 
money, for example, to roads and canals, is limited to the simple act of ap- 
propriation. But the power to make roads and canals, would authorize 
their location and protection, either with or without consent, on the pro- 
perty of any individual, and within the jurisdiction of any State. So, too, 
an authority to create a fund, as proposed by Mr- King, "to aid in the eman- 
cipation and removal of such slaves, as may by the laws of the several 
States be authorized to be emancipated and removed," could not in any 
possible mode interfere with the rights either of the States or of individu- 
als. But a power "to emancipate and remove" the slaves within the limits 
of a State, would be a most alarming power of interference with both. 
There is obviously, therefore, a very good reason why the active powers of 
the Government should be specified and defined, while the power of ap- 
propriation should be limited only by the general interests of the country. 



92 Opimius, JN'o. 5. 

ingly pass from a personal allusion, -which I would gladly 
have avoided, to a very brief notice of the last communica- 
tion of this open and devoted advocate of slavery. 

The mode in which he has thought proper, in this commu- 
nication, to treat the views of the Colonization Society, -is 
neither new nor ingenious. Its prototype will be found in 
the speeches and publications in Great Britain against the 
abolition of the dare trade. Against that glorious effort of 
the wisest and the greatest statesmen the world had ever 
seen, the subtlety of professional genius, the powers of bril- 
liant sarcasm, and the overwhelming influence of barefaced 
misrepresentation, were successively essayed. The charges 
of wild fanaticism and religious enthusiasm, were especially 
urged with all the zeal of trembling interest, and all the 
fury of disappointed avarice. The hopeless degradation of 
Africa, its incapacity for improvement, and its fitness only 
for ministering to the wants of civilized man, were present- 
ed in bold relief. The dangers and the expense of interfe- 
rence with the long-established usage of the world, were 
thrown in terrific array before the eyes of a calculating peo- 
ple; and even justice and humanity were most impiously ap- 
pealed to, not merely for the protection of property already 
acquired, but for the perpetuation of a traffic, whose sub- 
jects were human beings, and whose instruments were force 
and fraud, and perjury and rapine. But a recurrence to 
fundamental principles was most carefully avoided. The 
arguments drawn by the friends of abolition, from the ac- 
knowledged rights of man, and from the holy precepts of 
the Christian faith, were either shunned as dangerous topics, 
or ridiculed as the suggestions of busy fanaticism. Every 
obstacle was thrown in the way of a fair and candid investi- 
gation of the cruelties inseparable from the trade. And the 
great and lasting interests of the nation were sought to be 
hid from the public view, by a glittering exhibition of the 
temporary increase of its revenue, and of the rapid accumu- 
lation of individual wealth. 

In the same spirit, and (with very little variation) in the 
same manner, have the views of the Colonization Society 
been treated by this modern advocate of domestic slavery. 
In a communication professing to be a full and triumphant 
reply to all that has been urged in support of the Society, 
its real objects have been either totally disregarded, or ad- 
verted to, only to be misrepresented. The infinite impor- 
tance to the nation of removing a confessedly injurious popu- 
lation, has been kept entirely out of view, and the public at- 



Opimius, A'o. 3. 93 

tention been drawn to the exclusive contemplation of petty 
details, and of those considerations of religion and philan- 
thropy, which, though entering into, and inseparably con- 
nected with the plans of the Colonization Society, neither 
constitute the foundation on which they rest, nor are indis- 
pensable to their success. But details are certain fields of 
triumph to county court ingenuity; and religion and philan- 
thropy are ever fruitful themes of sarcasm and invective, to 
the thoughtless and the licentious. Aware of this, and sen- 
sible of the deep and general conviction of the public mind, 
as to the evils entailed upon us by our coloured popula- 
tion, Caius Gracchus has most carefully avoided those pow- 
erful considerations of national interest, which call for their 
removal, and has directed the whole force of his wit and ge- 
nius, sometimes against difficulties of his own creation, and 
sometimes against those less general, and therefore less im- 
posing arguments, which were addressed exclusively to the 
humane and generous feelings of the nation. ^ How far he 
has succeeded, even in this insidious mode of attack, will 
readily appear from a very slight examination of its most 
important points. 

The charge of mischievous enthusiasm, urged with a mo- 
desty and decorum, worthy of the signature under which it 
is exhibited, needs no other refutation than is furnished by 
the deep and heartfelt interest in the operations of the Colo- 
nization Society, publicly manifested by such men as Chief 
Justice Marshall, Judge" Washington, Mr. Clay, and Mr. 
Crawford.* Before Caius Gracchus can hope to excite 
the suspicions, or to arouse the indignation of his fellow 
citizens against men like these, he must have established for 
himself a reputation derived from some other source than 
the conflicts of a county court, and extending beyond the 
limits of a newspaper circulation. When he shall have ex- 
hibited in the councils of the State, that profound practical 
wisdom, which we have a right to anticipate from his eio- 

*To these names might doubtless have been added that of Mr. Jefferson, 
had not this distinguished philosopher retired from the theatre of public 
action, before the Society commenced its operations. His sentiments on 
the subject, however, are generally known. His exertions, while in the 
Presidential chair, were most anxiously directed towards procuring on the 
coast of Africa, a settlement to which the free negroes might be sent. 
And I now have before me a letter of his, dated in 1811, in which, after 
declaring his willingness to do every thing in his power to give effect and 
security to any establishment that might be attempted, he emphatically 
says, "Nothing is more to be -wished than that the United States would them- 
selves undertake to make such an establishment on the coast of Jfrica"J ! ! 



94 Upimhis, No. 5. 

quent denunciations of what lie is pleased to consider vision- 
ary enthusiasm, — when he shall have succeeded in arresting 
"the downward course" of the land of his nativity, and 
when he shall have demonstrated by its actual improvement, 
moral as well as physical, the manifold blessings of domes- 
tic slavery; — then, and not till then, may he hope to trans- 
fuse into the public mind, some share of "the execration 
and horror," with which he is disposed to visit the opinions 
of so large and so respectable a portion of his fellow-citi- 
zens. 

A very moderate share of reflection could not have failed 
to diminish his confidence in the natural propensities of the 
negro, as an insurmountable obstacle in the way of his re- 
moval; and the recollection of a few facts of general notorie- 
ty, would have reduced to its proper dimensions, "that little 
matter of consent" on which, in the fulness of his zeal, he 
dwells with such unceasing delight. Human nature is the 
same in every region and under every colour. Heaven has 
implanted in us a solicitude for the improvement of our con- 
dition, from which even the acknowledged sluggishness of 
the negro does not entirely exempt him; and facts may be 
adduced to show, that "aversion to emigration," is not so 
powerful a principle in his composition, as to stifle every 
other feeling of his degraded nature. We surely arc the 
last people in the world who ought to anticipate difficulties 
from such a source — we, who are living witnesses of the 
progressive advances of millions of freemen, sprung almost 
exclusively from the emigrants of a .single island; — we, who 
are daily contemplating the eagerness with which thousands 
of our fellow-citizens are deserting the homes of their fa- 
thers, and the graves of their ancestors, for the trackless 
forests of the West. And does a difference of complexion 
really create so radical a difference in the human character? 
Will* the white man leave a comfortable home, the circle of 
his friends, and the ties of his nativity, merely in pursuit 
of additional wealth, while neither poverty nor oppression 
will stimulate the negro to exerticn ? If, as is averred, the 
latter, "with all the powers of loco-motion, prefers to re- 
main in the county or village where he was born, rather 
than avail himself of the many and high inducements to a 
removal to the non-slave-holding States of the West," is 
not his preference accounted for by the fact, that these in- 
ducements are neither as many nor as high as they are sup- 
posed to be; — that they offer him no improvement in his so- 
cial, his civil, or his political condition — and above all. 



Opimius, JVo. 5. 95 

that they require him to leave a State, where he is elevated 
at least one degree in the scale of humanity, and to place 
himself amongst those, with whom he is to rank the lowest 
of the low ? If, too, when he does move, (and the power of 
motion it seems is not entirely denied him) "it is to the 
populous towns and cities on the Atlantic, rather than to 
the rich and fertile countries of the West*" is not his choice 
determined by the comparative facilities offered him, for ac- 
quiring all that the laws of the countrv and the feelings of 
society will permit him to acquire ? Why, then, if a situa- 
tion can be presented, still more alluring, and famishing 
greater facilities for acquisition, and a wider field for en- 
joyment, why are we to apprehend that he will be unwilling 
to avail himself of it ? It cannot be forgotten, that in the 
course of a single season, six thousand of this inert race 
were tempted to the shores of Hayti; and that even in the 
infant and unprotected state of the settlement at Liberia, a 
thousand more have been induced to "encounter the hazards 
ol a sea voyage, " and to essay "its returnless distance." 

But the Resident Agent, we are told, has been under the 
necessity "of teasing the different Auxiliaries for subjects of 
transportation." If the fact be so, (and it might certainly 
have come through a less objectionable channel,) is it to be 
wondered at, that in the present actual condition of the Colo- 
ny, and under the operation of the grossest misrepresent;^ 
tions with regard to the intentions of its founders, difficulties 
should sometimes exist in particular sections of the country, 
in procuring at a moment's warning, the requisite number 
of emigrants for a voyage ? Had Caius Gracchus allowed 
nimseli to enter upon a candid examination of the Reports of 
the Society, which he seems hitherto to have read, only in 
the spirit in which the Atheist reads his Bible, he would have 
learned, that whatever may have been the fact in relation to 
a single expedition, the candidates for emigration have very 
generally exceeded the Society's means for transportation.— 
And the late appeal of the Agent to the generous feelings of the 
public, must have satisfied Mm, that notwithstanding "the 
accession to its funds from the collections of the 4th of July 
last, the Society is at this moment labouring under a more 
serious difficulty than "this little matter of consent." 

But the defeat of the whole plan of colonization, is most 
numphantly anticipated, from the necessity it is supposed 
to involve, of disturbing certain domestic relations subsist- 
ing between the free negroes and the slaves; and with an air 
ol most imposing confidence, an appeal is made "to the ob- 



96 QpimiuSf *Vo. 5. 

servation of every gentleman in the community," for the 
fact, "that three-fourths at least, of the matrimonial connec- 
tions that take place among the free blacks, are contract- 
ed with slaves." Can it be necessary to remind your cor- 
respondent, that nearly one-half of the free coloured popula- 
tion of the country, reside in States where slavery does not 
exist; or that in relation to the other half, it has been a pe 
culiar part of our Southern policy to discourage, as far as 
possible, their association with our slaves? And so far has 
the policy succeeded in this part of the country, that in a 
neighbourhood, having its full share, both of slaves and free 
negroes, a matrimonial connection between them, is an inci- 
dent of very rare occurrence. But even were it otherwise, 
an ingenuity less brilliant, or a sagacity less profound, than 
has fallen to the lot of Caius Gracchus, would find no diffi- 
culty in devising means, by which the removal of this 
wretched population might be effected, without disturbing 
those "natural and domestic relations," which have called 
into such powerful action, the latent feelings of his heart. It 
argues indeed but little confidence in the patriotism and 
benevolence of the community in which he lives, to suppose 
that an object, whose importance, even he is constrained to 
admit, would be permitted to fail for want of a miserable 
pittance from the hand of charity. 

But it is against the idea of restoring our coloured popula- 
tion to the land of their fathers, elevating them to a higher 
degree of political freedom, and using them as instruments 
for carrying civilization and religion to the shores of Africa, 
that the varied powers of your correspondent are most suc- 
cessfully displayed. To his happy illustrations, and to his 
successful effort in "holding the mirror up to folly," 1 bear a 
willing testimony. Neither "Womba the son of Witless, " 
nor that "pretty Knave" of Lear's, nor indeed any other 
member of the fraternity of jesters, ever established a fairer 
claim to "the cap with bells," or the "sword of lath." and 
if the spirit of self-complacency was, at any time, more con- 
spicuously the result oUheir successful sallies; historical jus 
tice has not been done them, in the records of their deeds and 
sayings. 

I am no great stickler for "the perfectability of man;" but, 
I confess myself somewhat startled, when I hear a citizen of 
a republican country, seriously discouraging all attempts at 
improving the condition of his fellow-creatures, on the ground 
of the failure "of the French nation in their late abortive at- 
tempts at liberty." Other periods, and other incidents 



Opimms, No. 5. 9* 

would have furnished examples more favourable to the charac- 
ter of man, and to the cause of republicanism. The progress 
ef events in the southern part of our own continent ought to in- 
spire us with a hope, that human nature can never be too de- 
graded for improvement; and the actual t ondition of Hay ti, 
furnishes the most incontrovertible evidence, that even the ne- 
°ro character is not wholly unsusceptible of both moral and po- 
litical elevation. But, at Sierra Leone, an experiment precise- 
ly similar to our own has been made, under the auspi es of 
the British Government; and its entire success in relation 
both to the character and condition of the settlers, leaves us 
no room to doubt that the coloured population of our country 
might, in Africa, attain to a higher degree of civil and po- 
litical freedom, than they can ever be permitted to enjoy 
here. The happy influence, too, exercised by the same set- 
tlement over the tribes in its immediate vicinity, ought to in- 
spire us with a hope that the same interesting results could 
not fail to flow from a similar settlement established under 
the auspices of our own Government. 

With respect to the alleged interference of the non-slave- 
holding States, I need add but little to what I have already 
said. The rudeness with which Caius Gracchus cxultingly 
proclaims their advances to have been met, was confined, (1 
believe, to the polished Governor Burton, and the un- 
fortunate Governor Troup. The Executives and Legislatures 
of some of the other States have disagreed to the resolutions 
of Ohio, but it has been in language, and in a mode, neither 
disgraceful to themselves, nor mortifying to their country. 
Others, on the c ontrary, while they have forborne to act 
on the subject as presented by Ohio, have not hesitated to 
avow themselves, decidedly favourable to the removal and 
colonization of the free people of colour. Delaware, Mary- 
land, Tennessee, and in a moment of less excitement, even 
Georgia, ail slave-holding States, have, at different times, 
expressed their approbation of the plan. And Virginia, not 
satisfied with resolving, has furnished a more substantial 
evidence of her opinion, by an appropriation of g500 to an 
expedition that was fitted out during the last year. With 
these evidences before us, I think it fair to infer, that when 
present excitements shall have passed away, we shall recur 
with feelings of grateful approbation, to the generous offers 
of our Northern and Western brethren. 

I have thus, Messrs. Editors, noti ed very briefly, as I 
promised to do, the most important considerations contained 
in the only reply vouchsafed to the various arguments urged 
M 



9$ Opimius, J\*o. 5. 

in favour of colonizing the free people of colour; and, yet, I 
can hardly he said to have touched on a single idea of much 
importance to the plan, or to have answered a single argu- 
ment, which might not haveheen disregarded, without detri- 
ment to my cause. The great ohject of the Colonization So- 
ciety, is the removal from our country, of a population con- 
fessedly injurious to its interests. It is in this point of view, 
"a practical, political question," and as such, we of the 
South, at least, are "deeply interested" in a rational and 
just consideration of it. Allow me, then, to ask, if it can he 
brought too early to our view, or pressed with too much zeal 
on our attention? The evils which have given rise to it, have 
already made their way into our society, — they are per- 
ceptible in our institutions, both civil and political, — and 
their all-pervading influence is felt in the very sources of our 
wealth and strength. We have, in the midst of us, a numer- 
ous and continually increasiug population, which I have de- 
scribed, (correctly, I think,) in a former number, as "differ- 
ing from us in habits, as in colour,— idle, because deriving 
from wealth but few of its most valuable privileges — disso- 
lute, because furnished with none of the most powerful incen- 
tives to moral rectitude, — animated by no patriotic sympathy 
for a country, in which it feels itself oppressed, and re- 
quiring for its special government a system of laws, adapted 
to its moral and political degradation." To the removal of 
this population, in a mode consistent alike with patriotism 
and humanity, the powers and resources of the nation are 
fully adequate; and it is now submitted in sober seriousness, 
to the country, whether it would be better to fold our arms 
under the rapid accumulation of the evil, or to apply our- 
selves at once to guard against its future and inevitable con- 
sequences? 

In relation "to the tenure of Southern slavery," the views 
of the Colonization Society are clear and explicit. A very 
large proportion of the most active members of the Society 
are slave-holders. They know and feel, in their fullest ex- 
tent, the rights that have been secured to them by the Con- 
stitution and laws of their country; and they recognize no 
authority on the part of others to interfere with those rights, 
or, in any manner, to weaken or destroy the obligations 
they create. But experience has forced upon them the con- 
viction, that slavery is an absolute evil to this country. 
They cannot agree with Mr. Secretary Barbour, that it is 
an evil entailed upon us forever: They believe on the con- 
trary, that its gradual and voluntary removal is fully within 



Cains Gracchus, No. G. 99 

die compass of our means. And they look to the establish- 
ment at Liberia as the first, and not the least important step 
towards the accomplishment of this interesting result. If 
this "is what is meant" by "the nurture and propagation of 
principles unfriendly to the tenure of Southern slavery," I 
for one plead guilty to the charge, even at the risk of en< oun- 
tering "the execration and horror" of the whole race of the 
Gracchi.* OPIMIUS. 

•In his Notes on Virginia, Mr. Jefferson says "with what execration 
should the statesman be loaded, who, permitting- one-half the citizens to 
trample on the rights of the other half: transforms those into despots, and 
these into enemies; destroys the morals of the one .part, and the amor pat- 
rise of the other. For if a slave can love a country in this world, it must be 
any other in preference to that in which he is born to live and labour for 
another, in which he must lock up all the faculties of his nature, contribute 
as far as depends on his individual endeavours, to the evanishment of the 
human race, or entail his miserable condition on the endless generations 
proceeding from him. With the morals of the people, their industry also 
is destroyed, &c. 

"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure, when we have re- 
moved their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that 
these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but 
with his wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country, when I reflect that God 
is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever, that considering numbers, na- 
ture, and natural means, only a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an ex- 
change of situation is among possible events! that it may become probable 
by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can 
take sides with us in such a contest, &c. But the way, I hope, is preparing 
under the auspices of Heaven for a total emancipation, and that this is dis- 
posed, in the order of events, to be with the consent of the masters, rather 
than by their extirpation." 



a Ah, what's more dangerous, than this fond affiance. 

"Seems he a dove? His feathers are but borrowed. 

"Is he a lamb? His skin is surely lent him."— Shakspeare. 

To the Editors of the Enquirer. 

Gentlemen: I must bespeak the pardon of an intelligent 
public for again throwing myself upon its indulgence, after 
the intimation which I gave, of my determination to rely in 
future upon the good sense of my countrymen, to arrest the 
further propagation of the pernicious doctrines of the Ame- 
rican Colonization Society. But the recent effusions of 
Opimius, (which I must consider as semi-official,) connected 
with certain public resolves of late by the Society, force me 
from my purpose, and demand a further notice. And 
while I have no doubt, but tlie interests of the Society would 



10l> Cams Gracchus, JVfc. b. 

be best consulted, by diverting the public attention from the 
real objects of the Institution, to little petty personalities 
which have no connection with the subject under discussion; 
I shall take care, that your correspondent and his Society, 
do not escape by any artifice of that kind; although it is possi- 
ble, even in that species of warfare, Opimius might find him- 
self in many respects uncomfortable. And I will now only 
say to him, that I am perfectly aware, that in his estimation 
I have sinned beyond forgiveness, in daring to question the 
infallibility of his club, and that like many of the ancient re- 
formers, I shall be able only to expiate my offence at the 
stake, or upon the scaffold. I have, too, in a most unpar- 
donable manner, been guilty of betraying this once good-na- 
tured and courteous gentleman, into an utter loss, both of 
his temper and good manners. And, above all, have so far 
taken advantage of his weakness, as to drive this selected 
champion and Vice-President of the Colonization Society in- 
to an unqualified declaration, that his Society "looks to their 
establishment at Liberia as the Jirst, and not the least impor- 
tant step," to effect the entire removal of our slave popula- 
tion. And this, too, almost at the same moment that a wor- 
thy member, (with whom I presume Opimius is very well 
acquainted) for the purpose of quieting public alarm, is 
moving a string of resolutions before the parent Society, 
declaring to the world, among other things, * 'that its only 
object is the removal to the coast of Africa, with their own 
consent, of such people of colour, within the United States, 
as are already free, and of such others as the humanity of 
individuals and the laws of the different States may hereaf- 
ter liberate." But this is not all: these high offences have 
been greatly aggravated by the fact, that they have all been 
committed by an arch "County Court Advocate," and "your 
errant pupil, Messrs. Editors." Without venturing, in any 
degree, to question either the candour or morality of this 
course, according to the standard which the Society may 
have erected; I would respectfully intimate to your corres- 
pondent, that if this is a specimen, I can have as little fan- 
cy for his system of ethics, as I have for his politics; and 
which, he must pardon me for saying, would be esteemed 
entirely too Jesuitical, to pass as current coin, even among 
the most subordinate of that profession, which he has cho- 
sen to deride. Let us, however, forego for the present, any 
consideration of this act of good faith to the public, which a 
religious and philanthropic Association has been pleased to 
exercise; and superadd some further reflections on that 



Cams Gracchus, «/V*o. 6. 101 

ground of hope, -which the Society has solemnly declared to 
the world was its only anchor of salvation. I mean the 
powers of the Federal Government to interfere in its behalf, 
and to take the Society and its new Colony into their own 
hands. And to enable the country to take a just and satisfac- 
tory view of this question, it is peculiarly proper that the real 
objects of the Society, stripped and unmasked of all its false 
habiliments, should be taken into the estimate. And while 
I have been heretofore labouring to collect the scattered 
and latest evidences of the Society's purpose to effect the 
general emancipation of slavery by indirect means, this 
Vice-President of the Institution, under his newspaper sig- 
nature, (no doubt in a moment of weakness and melting pity 
for all Africa) has told the whole tale. I shall, therefore, 
on the present occasion, consider him as good authority for 
the fact, that the Society "looks to their establishment at 
Liberia as the first, and not the least important step" to the 
attainment of this object. How, then, does the question 
fairly present itself? The American Colonization Society 
professing, by its public resolves, that its only object is the 
colonization of the free people of colour on the coast of Af- 
rica; while one of its Vice-Presidents, an active defender in 
the public prints, backed by a public journal, styled "The 
African Repository," created by its bounty, and exclusively 
devoted to its service, is industriously engaged in inculcat- 
ing the opinion, that negro slavery is the greatest social and 
political curse of our country, and that its removal is indis- 
pensable to our future safety and happiness.* With this 
double-faced, Janus-like aspect, being "neither fish nor 
fowl," it presents itself before the American Congress, and 
begs to be adopted as a legitimate subject of its bounty, and 
a child of the Constitution. And the question is again em- 
phatically asked, under what provision of the Constitution is 
it, that this application is made ? We are told by Opimius, 
according to his explanation now given, that it is under the 
implied power of Congress to appropriate the public reve- 
nue to objects connected with the "domestic tranquillity, the 
common defence and general welfare," as indicated in the 
preamble to the Constitution. And without settling the 
question between us, whether the fault was with him, in the 
statement of his proposition, or myself in misapprehending 
it, I am willing now to consider this to have been his ori- 

• See, in particular, the conclusion of the 3d No. of Opimius, first series 
of publications, in reply to Caius Gracchus, and the whole character of 
*he publications of "The African Repository" upon the subject of slavery. 



102 Cuius G-racchus, JVo. C. 

ginal meaning: And still I must deny, that this new doc- 
trine of "the appropriating power" of the Government, 
"has heen conceded by a large proportion of the wisest and 
best men of our country, and been sustained by the uniform 
practice of every administration from the first to the last." 
But, on the contrary, think I shall be able to show by an 
application of it, to some of Opimius's own examples, that 
in its practical operations it would fall but little short of the 
doctrine, that the "General Government might do whatever^ 
it believed would be conducive to the common defence and 
general welfare," or, in other words, whatever it pleased; 
and that it is a heresy, which can in no degree be reconcil- 
ed with the idea, that the Federal Government is one of li- 
mited powers. 

But before I proceed to test the orthodoxy of this new doc- 
trine, derived from the fiscal powers of the Government, I 
will succinctly state its history as far as I am informed upon 
the subject, (though I certainly cannot hope to enlighten your 
correspondent upon this point.) This doctrine, which is but 
a modification of the more extravagant one of the ''common 
defence and general welfare," was, I believe, for the first 
time asserted by any officer of the Government in 1791: and 
then by Col. Hamilton, in his Report upon the subject of 
manufactures. The notion at that time was considered as 
extravagant, and although a Federal Administration was 
then in full exercise of power. Congress passed no law found- 
ed upon the Report, nor did any other act in relation to it, 
which could be construed into a recognition of its correctness. 
The doctrine seems to have slept from that time up to the 
period of Mr. Monroe's administration, when after nearly 
thirty years repose, it is again asserted by Mr. Calhoun in 
his Report in 1819, (according to my present recollection, 
upon the subject of Roads and Canals, with an eye to mili- 
tary operations, and in 1822, is again declared by Mr. Mon- 
roe*, in his most elaborate essay upon the Constitutional pow- 
ers of Congress to execute a general system of Internal Im- 
provement; and finally in 1824, when the bill for obtaining 
the necessary surveys, preparatory to a general system ol 
Internal Improvement was under discussion, it is believed 
that Mr. McDuffie was the only gentleman in the whole de- 
bate, who contended for it, while every other gentleman who 
noticed the doctrine at all (as far as I have seen the debates) 
whether advocates or opponents of the bill, expressly re- 
nounced it. as a doctrine which in its practical operations, 
would utterly destroy the Federal Government, as one of 



No. G. 10S 

limited powers. It is true that Mr. Adams goes the whole; 
as well in relation to this, as to many other newly discover- 
ed powers of the Government. And it is more than proba- 
ble, that Mr. Monroe is indebted to his ministry for his lat- 
ter impressions upon this subject, which he himself, at the 
very moment of announcing them to the world, admitted he 
did not entertain for the first twenty or thirty years of his 
political life; and which he was certainly not suspected of 
carrying with him into the Presidential Chair. That Messrs. 
Lowndes and Cheves ever advocated this doctrine, is a fact, 
of which I am not informed; and about which, your corres- 
pondent with all his zeal and devotion to it, is not himself 
certainly advised. This then, is a history, according to my 
information, of this doctrine of the ''appropriating power" 
of the Government: and which I hazard nothing in repeat- 
ing, was never considered as a settled article of the ancient 
Federal creed: The true battle-ground, between the old 
Federal and Democratic parties, being as to the extent of the 
incidental powers of the Government, as your correspondent 
himself intimates, and which may be abundantly seen, by 
reference to the debates upon the United States Bank bill of 
1790, and more especially the opinions of Messrs. Jefferson 
and Hamilton, communicated, in cabinet council, to Gene- 
ral Washington upon that question; and which, with the va- 
rious other debates and readings upon the Constitution, of 
that period, I would advise Opimius again to peruse, if he 
has not abandoned his political catechism, and become as 
excessive in his politics, as his Society has in the pursuit of 
its objects. 

But it is admitted by your correspondent that this is an 
implied power, and to be found nowhere expressed in the 
Constitution. Also, that the objection urged by Mr. Madi- 
son in his Report of 1799, grounded on the quality of money 
as an almost universal agent, for effecting every object of le- 
gislation, would be a solid one; as it would have the effect 
of defeating the subsequent enumeration of powers in the 
Constitution, "if the power to appropriate money to an ob- 
ject drew after it, as a necessary consequence, the power to 
accomplish that object:" "the power to appropriate money to 
an object and the power to execute it, being two distinct 
things." The latter he is pleased to call the active power of 
the Government, and the former, I presume, when christened, 
he would have us to understand as the passive power. And 
finally, by way of illustration, puts two cases: The one is 
"Mr. King's proposition to create a fund to aid in theeman- 



104 (Jaius Gracchus, JVfo. 6. 

cipation and removal of such slaves as may, by the laws of 
the several States, be authorized to be emancipated and re- 
moved," which he says "could in no possible mode inter- 
fere with the rights, either of the States, or of individuals. 
But a power to emancipate and remove the slaves within the 
limits of a State, would be a most alarming power of inter- 
ference with both." 

Let us now, Messrs. Editors, for the double purpose of 
illustrating this new doctrine, as well as of estimating the 
true character of this insidious proposition, which has been 
so eagerly embrar ed and defended by your correspondent 
and his Society, give it a practical application to this sub- 
ject of negro slavery. It is admitted, that the tenure by 
which we hold this portion of our property is sacred and in- 
violable under the Constitution; and that a power on the 
part of the Federal Government "to emancipate and remove 
the slaves within the limits of a State, would be a most 
alarming power of interference, both with the rights of the 
States and of individuals." Let us suppose that Congress, 
in the exercise of its power "to lay and collect taxes, du- 
ties, imposts, &c." should decide, that the general welfare 
demanded the removal of the whole slave population of the 
South, and that a tariff of duties should be so conceived 
and planned, as to bear almost exclusively upon the interest 
of the slave-holding States, (and recent experience shows 
the practicability of this part of the scheme,) with a view of 
raising a revenue to be applied to this object; and out of this 
fund to appropriate a sum to be laid out in the purchase of 
slaves, at a price that could not fail to command them, say 
Si 000 for each slave, young or old, male or female, to be 
delivered to its agents throughout the country, for the pur- 
pose of emancipation and removal. Can any reasonable 
man doubt, but this would be as effectual a mode of accom- 
plishing the emancipation of our slaves, at our own cost too, 
as any direct exercise of power for that object? In the one, 
case, the operation would be direct and immediate; in the 
other, indirect in its operation, employing only a little con- 
trivance to wring from us the very money, which is after- 
wards to be re-delivered to us in payment for our own pro- 
perty; and all this for "the common defence and general 
welfare." 

Let it be also remembered, that according to Opimius's 
own theory, the validity of this power is made to depend on 
its capacity to accomplish its object: Because, in his own 
language, if the "appropriation of money to an object draws 



Caius Gracchus, JVb. 6. 105 

after it the power to accomplish that object," it is equivalent 
to a direct exercise of the active powers of the Government 
to the attainment of that end. 

In the case under consideration, it has never been doubt- 
ed by any one, but the power to emancipate the slaves of a 
State was ex lusively a State right. Suppose the State of 
Virginia to be as unanimous in her legislative resolves to 
retain her slave population, as she has shown herself to be 
opposed to a Federal system of Internal Improvement; of 
what avail would be this legislative resolve, this State pur- 
pose, when the Federal Government had the power of com- 
pelling us to contribute the very funds with which, by its 
agents, it was buying up from individuals all the slaves of the 
commonwealth, at a price of three or four times their real 
value? The appropriations cannot here be said to go in aid 
of the rights and policy of the State of Virginia, but direct- 
ly in opposition to it. Its operation is directly and imme- 
diately upon the citizens of the commonwealth, and their 
property; without the intervention of State consent or State 
legislation. And it is not a sufficient answer to this objec- 
tion to allege, that in this mode of operation, the consent of 
the individual slave holders must first be obtained: Because 
it is this very circumstance of the Federal Government being 
able to accomplish its object, independent of State legisla- 
tion or consent, by directly operating upon the citizens of 
the States, (who are also citizens of the United States,) that 
makes the proceeding equivalent to a direct exercise of its 
active powers. 

What then becomes, Messrs. Editors, of this fanciful no- 
tion of the active and passive powers of the Federal Govern- 
ment, when it is reduced to practice? Money, from its ca- 
pacity of almost universal application to human affairs, and 
its powerful efficiency in accomplishing every object to which 
it is applied, must be admitted to be the most powerful of 
all human means in legislation; and under our Government, 
f hazard but little ijj saying, considered as a mean, is more 
efficient and powerful than all the other means of the Consti- 
tution put together, either granted in, or implied from, that 
instrument Yet this master-power of the Constitution — 
this "lever of Archimedes," capable of oversetting the whole 
fabric of a limited Government, was left by the wise framers 
of the Constitution to implication merely; and to be tortured 
by worse than "county court ingenuity" from the fiscal pow- 
ers of the Government. 

For the purpose of still further illustrating this subject 
N 



100 Cams CfracckuSf «iVo. C. 

suppose the Federal Government to determine "to emanci- 
pate and remove the slaves within the limits of a State," 
by an exercise of its active powers; and for that purpose, we 
will suppose this power to be given them directly in the 
Constitution. How would the Government proceed to effect 
this object? According to a provision in the 5th amendment 
to the Constitution, it could only be done by paying to their 
owners a fair price; for, that amendment expressly pro- 
vides, "that private property shall not be taken for public 
use without just compensation." Here then it is apparent, 
that whether the thing is to be done directly, and by means 
of its active powers, as they have been called, or indirectly 
by the "appropriating power," the result is fully much the 
same. The people in both cases are to be paid for their pro- 
perty, and the slaves of a State emancipated without an act 
of State legislation; and the only circumstance of difference 
is, that, by means of the appropriating power. Congress ac- 
complishes by indirect means what it is conceded on all hands 
it cannot effect directly, without a violation of the Constitu- 
tion. Let it also be remembered, that, in this way, by a 
competent douceur for the purchase and transportation of 
Southern slaves, the Federal Government is directly interfe- 
ring with the basis of our Representation in Congress; as 
each slave, in the apportionment of Federal Representation, 
counts as three-fifths of a free man. 

Thus much, Messrs. Editors, for this doctrine of the ap- 
propriating power of the Government, on which this Society, 
supposing it really to be a Colonization and not an Aboli- 
tion Society, must rest in its application to Congress for pa- 
tronage and support. And I have only to regret, that the 
limits of a newspaper essay forbid my superadding many 
other views, of which this part of the subject is so suscepti- 
ble. But I have the consolation to reflect that Virginia has 
a Tazewell and a Randolph at their posts, who, in < oncert 
with the other distinguished sons of the South, will drive 
this basilisk from the floor of Congress, by the first glanre 
of their withering eloquence: and that, in the appropriate 
language of the latter gentleman, (not exa tly in relation to 
this Society,) they will readily distinguish between "its 
language official and its language confidential," where one 
thing is said "to the novice, and another to the initiated." 

But whether this Society is in reality a Colonization or 
an Abolition Society, or in fact both, (which last I take to 
be its real character,) must be settled by its acts, and not by 
its words. And after the proofs which I have heretofore 



Cuius Gracchus, No. 6. 107 

•adduced, I shall now content myself with referring gentle- 
men who entertain a doubt upon this subject, to the charac- 
ter of its public journal, "The African Repository," and the 
late publications of Opimius, who, if he has not become wea- 
ry of his dignity, will be found wearing the toga of a Vice- 
President (if I am not mistaken,) when public resolves are 
to be moved; and who has recently told us, amid a great 
deal of scolding at Gracchus, that his "Society looks to their 
establishment at Liberia as the Jirst and not the least impor- 
tant step" to effect the total removal of our slave population. 

A word or two more, Messrs. Editors, to Opimius at 
parting, who has been so good as to recommend me, in the 
character of pupil, to your future ward and guardianship, 
and for which I must return him my thanks; and should cer- 
tainly endeavour to requite the favour by looking out for some 
able master, who would correct his excesses upon the sub- 
ject of politics, as well as negro slavery, if I did not believe 
his case to be absolutely hopeless; and, like the renowned 
Knight of Mancha, who travelled for the purpose of reliev- 
ing distressed damsels, that nothing short of a tilt to Libe- 
ria in person, with one summer's sweating in that climate, 
would be able to tame his spirits and settle his reason. 

He has also been polite enough to remind me of the associa- 
tion of "such names as Chief Justi e Marshall, Judge Wash- 
ington, Mr. Clay, and Mr. Crawford," with the operations 
of his Society, and to tell me, "that I must have established 
for myself a reputation derived from some other source than 
the confli< ts of a county ( ourt," before I can hope to arouse 
public indignation against men like these. In this he gra- 
tuitously ascribes to me a motive which I never entertained: 
Because it is well known, that the names and titles of many 
of these "big wigs" are only thrown in by way of make- 
weight, and are afterwards given to the public, as a gilded 
bait to the gudgeon. But I felt it a little unkind in your cor- 
respondent to have delayed this intimation until I had broken 
all terms with the Society: for perhaps if given at an earlier 
period, I, too, might have become a member of this Club, 
and been able to boast, like Jack Daw, of the richness of my 
plumage, and the good company I kept. 

Permit me now, gentlemen, in conclusion, to say to you, 
that in every thing which I have ever written or said upon 
this subject, (and I hope not to be compelled again to trouble 
you,) I have never allowed myself to question the goodness 
of the motives which influenced a large majority of the friends 
of colonization. But the wisdom and policy of their scheme, 



108 Upimius, JVo. 6. 

I have spoken of with freedom, and denounced in the strong- 
est language at my command. I have even felt disposed to 
reconcile, what I am hound to consider an uncandid suppres- 
sion of their ultimate views in relation to our slave popula- 
tion, as a course which they esteemed necessary in order the 
more effectually and quietly to atchieve what a misguided 
sensibility taught them to believe would be a great public 
good. But even fanaticism must remember, that this is a 
subject around which vipers are strung in every direction; 
and whether it be assailed in the public prints, or upon the 
floor of Congress, all the kind feelings of the human heart 
will be sacrificed to the necessity of the case. For in rela- 
tion to this subject, it has been wisely said, "that there are 
some occasions upon which instinct is worth all the argu- 
ment in the world." 

CAIUS GRACCHUS. 
March 26th, 182G. 



To the Editors of the Enquirer. 

Gentlemen: Although I have given no intimation of mij 
intention "to rely in future, on the good sense of my country- 
men," to sustain the principles I have advocated, against 
their most persevering assailant, I assure you with the ut- 
most sincerity, that I feel very great reluctance in again tres- 
passing on the public attention. A farmer, dependent for 
his support on the labour of his slaves, and his own personal 
exertions, imposes on himself no ordinary task, when he 
undertakes to combat the quibbles, and expose the sophistry, 
of one of that description, of "county court advocates," who 
are perfectly at leisure to attend to every body's business but 
their own. And indeed, after the fearful intimation given 
me, "that I might possibly find myself in many respects un- 
comfortable," in a farther "encounter of wits" with your 
astute correspondent, I should feel constrained to retire from 
the unequal contest, if I were not deeply impressed with the 
conviction, that this modest Malvolio had mistaken his head 
for his heart, and given his abilities a credit, which properly 
belonged to his inclination only. Sensible, too, that his wit, 
with all the keenness with which his own imagination has 
invested it, has not yet "borne a heart-stain away on its 
blade; 1 *' I indulge m the humble hope, that it will continue, 
to maintain its harmless and inoffensive character; and in this 



Opimius, JVo. 6. 109 

hope, venture once more to expose myself, in the cause of 
truth, to its feeble and random thrusts. 

I will not stop to inquire in what school of ethics Caius 
Gracchus has taken his degree; but I must be pardoned for 
saying, that his moral sense must be sustained very much at 
the expense of his intelligence, if we are to ascribe exclusive- 
ly to the defects of the latter, his wretched attempt to fix on 
the American Colonization Society, the charge of bad faith 
towards the public. The resolution quoted with so much 
exultation from the late proceedings of the Society, will be 
found to be in strict accordance, not only with every senti- 
ment it lias ever uttered, and every act it has ever done, but 
with that very declaration, with which it is sought to be ex- 
hibited in such glaring contrast. 

I have already had occasion, in correcting some of the 
earlier mistakes of Caius Gracchus, to refer to the speeches 
of Mr. Randolph and Mr. Clay, to show, that at the very 
commencement of its existence, the Society was looked to, as 
an instrument for relieving the country, not only of that por- 
tion of its coloured population already free, but of that portion 
also, yet retained in a state of slavery. On this latter feature 
of the plan proposed, both the gentlemen dwelt with peculiar 
emphasis. And, Mr. Randolph in particular, declared his 
belief, ''that there were hundreds, nay, thousands of indi- 
viduals in the South, prepared to avail themselves of the 
contemplated settlement, to throw off the evils and the 
burdens of slavery." Under the same impressions, and in 
the very same spirit, I ventured to assert in my last number, 
(only reiterating what I had said in every previous number.) 
"that the Society looked to its settlement at Liberia, as the 
first, and not the least important step towards the entire re- 
moval of the whole coloured population of the country." 
And after all the eloquence, and all the ingenuity of the 
Amelia Advocate, I very cheerfully submit it to the decision 
of my fellow-citizens, whether there be any thing in the as- 
sertion, conflicting in the smallest degree, with the declara- 
tion of the Society, "that its only object is the removal, to the 
coast of Africa, with their own consent, of such people of 
colour, within the United States, as are already free, and of 
such others as the humanity of individuals, and thelawsofthe 
<!ifferent States may hereafter liberate?" Neither my declara- 
tion, nor the resolution of the Society proposes any other 
operation in relation to slavery, but such as may be sanction- 
ed, and indeed, conducted by slave-holders themselves, and 
the authorities of the slave-holding States: and neither pro- 



lio Opimius, JVb. t>. 

poses to stop short of this, even though it should ultimately 
lead, (as it is confidently hoped it may do,) to the entire re- 
moval of the whole coloured population of the country. 

So much, then, for the object of the Colonization Society — 
an object, (no matter what Caius Gracchus may say to the 
contrary,) perfectly understood by the public, and I had sup- 
posed, intelligible even to the "most subordinate of that pro- 
fession," with which he has very generously proposed to 
share the derision intended for himself alone. But I have 
yet to perform the more arduous duty of examining the new 
light, which this profound logician, this modern Sir Hudi- 
bras, has shed on the constitutional right of Congress, to 
fulfil the just expectations of the Society and its friends; and 
in the discharge of this duty, I beg leave, by a fair explana- 
tion of the real character and extent of their expectations, to 
rescue them from the obscurity in which your wily corres- 
pondent has, at least, attempted to involve them. 

To the authorities of the United States, then, the Society 
looks, in the first instance, for nothing more than the ac- 
quisition and government of a territory, suitable for the re- 
ception and maintenance of such portions of the coloured 
population of our country, as their own inclinations may 
prompt, the humanity of individuals permit, and the laws of 
the different States encourage to emigrate. But, as the 
emigration, proceeding from these different causes, may, 
(and it is hoped will,) in process of time, require for its sup- 
port, more abundant resources, than can be supplied, either 
by individual wealth, or the scanty revenues of the States; 
and as the object to be effected, (not "executed,") is one of 
general and national concern, resort must, in this case, be 
had to the pecuniary aid of that Government, to which has 
been confided the important right, "of laying and collecting 
taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and pro- 
vide for the common defence and general welfare of the 
United States." Such, and such only, is the interference 
which the Society asks at the hands of the General Govern- 
ment. Every thing else, connected with the colonization of 
the people of colour, can, and it is believed, will be ef- 
fected, by individual humanity, and the wisdom of the res- 
pective States. 

From the silence of Caius Gracchus, in his last number, 
on the right of the General Government to acquire and 
"provide the needful rules and regulations" for the govern- 
ment of any territory, demanded by the general interests of 
the nation, I take it for granted, that his constitutional ob- 



Upimius, JVo. 0. ill 

jection to its interference, so far, at least, as these powers 
alone are involved, is abandoned; and that he is prepared to 
acquiesce in its compliance with the earnest and repeated 
solicitations of the State of Virginia, for aid in procuring 
a settlement for her coloured population on the coast of Af- 
rica. But, as I anticipated, those unfortunate expressions, 
'•the common defence and general welfare," have produced 
their wonted excitement, and all the powers of his genius 
have been exerted, in protecting the people against blessings 
to be procured by the agency of that portion of their own 
money, which has passed through the defiled channel of the 
treasury of the United States. 

I very cheerfully yield him all the advantages to be deriv- 
ed from my concession in a former number. I admitted then, 
and I still admit, that if the power to appropriate money to 
an object, and the power to effect that object, were one and 
the same thing, or that if the former drew the latter after it 
as a necessary consequence, the power of appropriation must, 
of course, be limited to the enumerated powers of the Go- 
vernment, as it would otherwise totally defeat the intention 
of that enumeration. But it will require, other arguments 
than such as have yet been adduced, to prove that any giv- 
en effect, which may be constitutionally defeated by a State, 
or even by an individual, can be the necessary consequence of 
an appropriation on the part of the General Government. 
And, until this is established, I must be excused for paying 
so much respect to the fair common-sense meaning of words, 
and to the received rules of construction, as to think, that 
a revenue specially raised for "promoting the common de- 
fence and general welfare" of the country, may be applied 
to those purposes, without any reference whatever to a sub- 
sequent enumeration of additional powers to be exercised by 
the Government. And I am the more decided in this opin- 
ion, from the conviction, that if it be not correct, the people 
of the United States have been guilty of the extreme folly of 
defeating the most important end of government, their oxen 
prosperity, by an injudicious distribution of their powers and 
resources between their different agents — having given to 
the General Government abundant resources, which cannot 
be used for want of objects of appropriation, and to the State 
Governments, important powers, which cannot be exercised 
for want of revenue to sustain them. Restore to the State 
of Virginia, the power "to lay and collect duties, and im- 
posts," within her own limits, and there is no measure con- 
nected either with the education of her citizens, the improve- 



113 Opvuius, A'o. 6. 

ment of her roads and canals, or the colonization of her peo 
pie of colour, that will be beyond the compass of her means. 
But leave this abundant source of revenue in the hands of 
the General Government, and shut out by ingeniously < on- 
trived constitutional barriers, its rich overflowings, from 
the channels they would naturally seek, when relieved from 
the national debt, and our citizens must continue to live in 
ignorance, our natural resources must be forever neglex t- 
ed, and a mixed population, pregnant with all the evils of 
domestic slavery, must be our endless portion. 

In giving a pra< tical illustration of the distinction I had 
endeavoured to establish between the right to appropriate and 
the power to execute, I referred, in a former number, to two 
cases of appropriation by the General Government, to objects 
not included in its enumerated powers. Of the first of them, 
viz. a subscription to a road or a canal, undertaken under 
the authority of a State Legislature, Caius Gracchus has very 
prudently taken no note, "letting it go," in the true spirit 
of Dogberry's philosophy, "and thanking God, he had got 
rid of a troublesome fellow." It affords, however, too apposite 
and forcible an exposition of the absurdity of his doctrine, 
to be kept entirely out of view; and I must accordingly be. 
pardoned for again inviting his attention to it, and again 
asking him, whether the right to make the appropriation in 
question, on the ground that it will "promote the common 
defence and general welfare," draws after it, as a necessary 
consequence, the right to omplete the road or the canal, even 
against the wishes of the State, by whose authority it has 
been undertaken? If it does not, the power to appropriate, 
and the power to execute, are distinct things; and the exten- 
sion of the former to every measure of general interest, so 
far from insuring the accomplishment of every object within 
the range of legislation, is perfectly compatible with the 
strictest enumeration and limitation of what, I have ventured 
(very much it seems to the discomfiture of your correspon- 
dent,) to deinominate "the active powers" of the Govern- 
ment. 

My second example, (Mr. King's resolution) has not 
shared the good fortune of the first. It has encountered all 
the powers of wit and eloquence, of farce and tragedy, your 
correspondent t ould command; and has espc ially given rise 
to a series of extravagant "suppositions," whi< h would find 
their most appropriate answer perhaps in the old adage, "if 
the sky falls, we shall catch larks." The opinion I had ex- 
pressed on this subject was, "that Mr. King's resolution 



Opimius, JV<s. 6. US 

for creating a fund to aid in the emancipation and removal 
of such slaves,, as the laws of the 'several States permitted to be 
emancipated and removed, gave no power to the General Gov- 
ernment to act without the consent both of the owners of the 
slaves and of the States in which they lived: that it did not 
propose to take from the former a property they wished to 
retain, nor from the latter a population, they might be un- 
willing to lose; and that, therefore, it could not in any pos- 
sible mode, interfere with the rights, either of the States or 
of individuals." This proposition I had supposed, was too 
plain to be misunderstood, or '-to be tortured by even worse 
than county court ingenuity," from its fair and obvious im- 
port. But strange to tell, by a logic, rivalled only by that 
which the poet tells us, "could prove by argument, a man's 
a horse," your correspondent has contrived to deduce from 
it an uncontrolable power on the part of Congress, to es^ 
tablish an enormous and unequal tariff, to bribe us of the 
South, into acquiescence, by the trifling offer of one thousand 
dollars a piece for our slaves, and by the occasional subdue* 
tion of "three fifths of a freeman,"* actually to destroy the 
very basis of our representation in Congress. These it 
must be confessed, are very appalling considerations; and 
the apprehensions they had created, have been quieted, only 
by the recollection, that the project which had given rise to 
them, proposed expressly to limit the contemplated appro- 
priation "to the emancipation and removal of such slaves 
only, as the laws of the different States might allow to be eman- 
cipated and removed." To the wisdom and justice of my 
country, therefore, I am content to look for protection 
against the threatened tariff. With my fellow-citizens, sit- 
uated like myself. I am willing to leave the settlement of the 
terms, on which their negroes shall be sold, no matter who 
may be the purchaser. And the legislative wisdom of our 
States, will not (I am sure,) fail to rescue the basis of our 
representation from destruction, if satisfied by the eloquence 
of Caius Gracchus, that it is broadest, as well as securest, 
when resting on a foundation of human slavery. 

And now, Messrs. Editors, I turn, as in duty bound to 
the suggestion of your correspondent, not less witty than re- 
fined, in relation to "a tilt to Liberia;" and in acceeding to 
his proposition, claim no other privilege than that which the 
laws of chivalry universally allowed, of indulging my own 
whim, in the selection of a squire. To whom, then, can I 
look, or on whom can my choice so appropriately fall as on 
him, who combining in himself most of the distinguishing 
O 



114 Lai ns Gracchus. AV>. 7. 

peculiarities of a Sancho and a Ralpho, seems evidently to 
have been formed by nature Tor a station. 

"T/.at costs no pains, 

Of study, industry, or brains?" 

When, therefore, I assume the character and equipments 
of the renowned Knight of La Mane ha, I shall expect to 
find at my heels, in the person of Cains Gracchus, a faithful 
squire, worthy of his chief and patron. In the mean time, 
I propose to him in sober seriousness, a temporary suspension 
of hostilities. His exertions during the last fall, contributed 
Aery much as [ am informed, to obtain a legislative appro 
priation of $800 for the Auxiliary Society of Richmond and 
Manchester. A similar appropriation, at the next session, 
will most probably be desirable: and I cannot help hoping, 
that a renewal of his attack, at a period not too remote from 
the commencement of the session, will have its appropriate 
effect, and open still wider towards the object of his hostility, 
the hearts of our legislators, and the purse-strings of the 
State, OPIMIUS. 



Ji Card to the Editor. 

Gevti.emkn: The argument between Opimius and my. 
vself is at an end. His late puerile and fretful rant, equally 
disarms opposition, and provokes the public derision. By 
his laboured personalities I am but little moved, as they in- 
volve in themselves, equally the proof of his own weakness, 
and the miserable shifts to which disingenuousness and double- 
dealing, can fly for refuge in the hour of detection. I should 
indeed have been sadly ignorant of the human character, had 
I reckoned, for a moment, that I could assail, with impunity, 
the principles of a club, founded in mischief, propagated by 
deception, and impelled to its purpose by all the rage of re- 
ligious enthusiasm. However misjudging in other respects, 
in this I have neither been deceived nor disappointed. I 
early foresaw, that in any attempt to excite reflection on the 
part of my countrymen, upon the real, though covert objects 
of the Colonization Society, I should expose myself to every 
species of personal assault, from the more polished railery of 
time and genuine wit, down to the lowest Billingsgate, which 
the most vulgar fancy could invent; and that the muddy 
streams of obloquy, and the mad ravings of fanaticism, 
would be equally directed against me — But I must candidly 
acknowledge, that I had not counted among the ills of the 



Lavas Gracchus. JVo. T. 

enterprise, the pel tings of a little mind, * hose consequence 
in no small degree, depended upon the petty dignity of a 
Vice-Presidency in his own cluh. and the reputation which 
his vanitv taught him to believe, he could be able to win in 
a controversy with Cams Gracchus in the public prints, 
upon his own" favourite theme. This portion of suffering, I 
had not indeed estimated; although I ought to have remem- 
bered that in all those goodly associations, there are some tittle 
treat ones, who would be entirely overlooked, did they not 
make up by the excess of their zeal, what never could be ex- 
pected from the wisdom of their acts. Ought I not then, 
gentlemen, to regard the dreadful assault, which thas ibeen 
recently made upon me by this most puissant, and tolerant 
little dignitary, quite as an incident in the course of events— 
and which in his own words, if it 

"Costs no pains 

"Of study, industry, or brains," 

is at least indicative of that angry spirit of intolerance, which 
never fails to result from, and is the legitimate offspring ot 
every connection between religion and politics. 

Your correspondent, it would seem, unable to brook the 
freedom of discussion, has fallen into a passion, and called 
Gracchus by sundry hard names, (such as "modest Mai- 
volio." &C.) and has been cruel enough, to deny him even a 
moderate share of intelligence: and this, too, at the expense 
of his own consistency; for, when in a better mood, he im- 
puted to him both ingenuity and learning, to neither of which 
had he anv serious claim. Hence, Messrs. Editors, il the 
public should manifest any indifference either to his censures 
or his praise, you will impute it to t\w proper cause, and 
agree with all sensible men, that opinions which are so de- 
pendent upon the humours, are not worth regarding. I will, 
however, on mv part, in passing judgment upon him. en- 
deavour to avoid his example, and at least preserve consist- 
ency and candour: and in good faith acknowledge, that his 
earlier publications were in no degree discreditable to him as 
an author: but thai in the language of King Richard he may 
justly say: 

"lean play the Orator, as -.-ell as J\'estor, 
"Deceive more slyly than Ulysses could, 
"Change forms with Proteus for advantage,^ 
'•'. ind set the murderous Machiavel to school.'' 

Vnd I will furthermore do him the justice to believe, that in 
the Philosophy of his favourite -Dogberry," he is himself 
altogether an 'adept. For, even if he should be so unfortu- 
nate as to "take note" of a troublesome fact or proposition, 



lib Cuius Gracchus, JV&. :. 

he feels no difficulty in abandoning it so abruptly, that tni 
most charitable of his readers must consider it an absolute 
case of desertion, and his remarks as any thing but an ar- 
gument. And hence it is, that the principles of his art, no 
doubt taught him "to submit it cheerfully to the decision oi 
his fellow-citizens," whether his Society were guilty of an 
act of bad faith, in making a solemn and public declaration, 
that its objects were confined to the removal of the free people 
of colour only, while its most active partizans, and one of 
its J^ice-Presidents, aided by a monthly Journal, were sedu- 
lously engaged in inveighing against negro slavery, and 
pointing "to their Colony at Liberia, as the first, and not the 
least important step" to the removal of our whole slave popu- 
lation. Your correspondent must pardon me also, for con- 
sidering him as obviously invoking the public sympathy, and 
the compliments of his Society, when he tells us "that a 
farmer dependent for his support on the labour of his slaves, 
and his own personal exertions, imposes on himself no ordi- 
nary task, when he undertakes to combat the quibbles, and 
expose the sophistry of one of that description, of county court 
advocates, who are perfectly at leisure to attend to every 
body's business but their own." And while I should cer- 
tainly feel a sentiment of humility, could I envy him either 
the one or the other; a moderate share of observation might 
have taught him, that the irregular intervals themselves, at 
which the communications of Gracchus have appeared, were 
the result of other engagements. Ac the same time I cannot 
forbear the belief myself, that your correspondent is a gentle- 
man entirely at leisure. And it is perhaps, owing to this ex- 
cess of leisure, and a little troublesome vanity which is 
known to beset him, that we are to ascribe the many bus) 
hours that we find him killing, in the pursuit of mischief, and 
the duties pertaining to his petty dignity. 

But I must not forget, gentlemen, that I am sending you 
merely a card, designed to apprise Opimius that if he is real- 
ly desirous of a Truce, he must not expect to "fret his bus) 
hour," and then extend the olive branch; but in good faith, 
act upon the principle which he recommends, and he will find 
me in that case as little disposed to trouble the public with a 
controversy, in which they have ceased to have an interest, 
as I shall be at all times explicit, in retaliating every thing 
that savours of personalitv. 

CAIUS GRACCHUS 

June SMh, 1326* 



Op i mi us, JVbb 7. 

To the Editors of the Enquirer. 

Gentlemen: I have no disposition to pursue the contro- 
versy with Caius Gracchus any farther. The argument be- 
tween us, is at an end — and might indeed very fairly have 
terminated at an earlier period. But his gross perversions 
of my original argument rendered explanations necessary — 
and if in making them, I have ventured to apply a suitable 
corrective to overweening arrogance, I find my justification 
not less in the offence to be punished than in the spirit in 
which my earlier forbearance was met. Like the old man 
in the fable, I have resorted to stones, only when simpler 
weapons had failed in their effect. And if Caius Gracchus 
is now smarting under their operation, he must blame, not 
the instruments of his correction, but the vanity which ex- 
posed him to their peltings. 

Before venturing to complain of "laboured personalities," 
or representing them as "the shifts of disingenuousness and 
double-dealing," he ought, in common prudence, to have ad- 
verted to the fact, that it was himself who first attempted to 
divert the public mind from the subject in discussion, to the 
person and character of his opponent; and if he had not been 
permitted to assail with impunity, the principles, of what he 
is pleased to designate as "a club," he must recollect that 
his investigation of those principles was combined, from the 
beginning, with an indecorous attack on the integrity and 
fair dealing of their supporters, and with a wretched attempl 
to draw down "the execration and horror" of the com- 
munity, on a very respectable portion of his fellow-citizens. 

How far I have been stimulated to the defence, in which I 
have engaged, either by "religious enthusiasm," or by "tile 
little troublesome vanity which is known to beset me," 1 
must leave to the judgment of others. I cannot help hoping, 
however, that in selecting motives of action for me, my op- 
ponent, (with whom I have not the pleasure of a personal 
acquaintance.) has relied on the suggestions of his own exu- 
berant fancy, rather than on the information of others. And 
I feel perfectly assured that an intelligent public will, at al! 
events, visit with a spirit of indulgence, "a vanity." so "lit- 
tle," as to aspire only to a reputation "to be icon in a con 
trovers]/ with Caius Gracchus in the public prints'' ! 1 ! 

I have not been guilty of the inconsistency charged upoi^ 
me. It is very possible that "in imputing to him, at first, 
both ingenuity and learning," I might (as was intimated tt: 
me, by a very respectable neighbour of his. and is now con 



lib Opimius, j\°o. 



u;u. 



firmed by his own declaration,) have done him more tha 
justice. But as these were not wholly incompatible with in- 
ordinate vanity, and presumptuous arrogance, I have not 
felt myself debarred by early and (as it would seem) un- 
merited praise, from applying the lash of ridicule to preten- 
sions, evidently beyond the reach of argument or advice; and 
if my respect even for his "ingenuity and learning," has un- 
dergone a considerable diminution, that public to which he 
appeals, will attribute it, (I am sure,) not so much to any 
"varying humours" of mine, as to the obvious intellectual 
descent, which has marked his latter progress. 

But it is not my wish to be unjust. Caius Gracchus has 
talents and learning amply sufficient for the sphere in which 
lie was designed to move. An ingenuity less brilliant, an 
education less polished, and a facility of expression less hap- 
py, than have fallen to his lot, might make a very respecta- 
ble figure before an ordinary jury. These qualifications, 
(aided, as they will be, by a spirit of self-complacency, that 
can conceive no higher motive of action, than "a reputation 
to be won in a controversy witli Caius Gracchus,") may 
very possibly fit him for the new theatre on which he is 
about to act. They may even make him soihething, in a; 
body, where, (as I once heard Mr. Randolph say in reference 
to a similar body,) "acypher does not always pass for nought." 
But they have not qualified him to become a public instruc- 
tor, , and if the "cacoethes scribendi" has acquired ahold 
upon him absolutely irresistible, I trust he will, at least 
select, in future, some other objects of attack, than the bene- 
volent institutions, and the religious feelings of the commit 
fiity in which he lives. OPIMIUS. 

Fairfax Countu. Jin-just Bth, L"J 



LEJa'12 



